God Is Greater Than Your Past!Sample

Have you ever struggled to complete a project? After the motivation to begin fades, the temptation to give up in the “messy middle” grows strong. It is easy to wonder if God is going to get things done.

In moments when I wonder what God is doing, I find so much encouragement from Romans 8:30, which describes God’s work in our lives. “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

In this plan, we’ve seen that “God is at work” and “God has a plan.” I want to share the final promise in that verse with you. You need to remember that “God finishes what He starts.”

I want to focus on the final product of God’s work here. From beginning to end, God is at work. He hasn’t eliminated human agency. God is not working with automatons or robots. He’s working with humans, alive and active. In this passage, we see how God calls people to Himself, justifying them, and ultimately glorifying them.

God started by sending Christ to save and not condemn the world, as described in John 3:16-17; Paul describes Him finishing by making people right with God (justification) and fully transforming them into the image of Jesus (glorification).

The promise of this process is why we can exchange our past for a bright future. Regardless of what’s in our past - joy or pain, success or failure, moments of pride or moments of shame, we are now in Christ, and what God is doing is bringing our story to a glorious conclusion.

No matter where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or what has been done to you, no matter what you’ve endured, God promises that He is working - for your good and His glory.

I want to share something fascinating in this verse with you. When Paul describes how God has done this work of justifying and glorifying us, he speaks about our future status as if it has already happened. Not only is this because God is outside of time, so to God, it’s as if it happened, but Paul also does this because it’s that certain! We can trust God's promise to finish what He started in us.

Paul opens his letter to the Philippians by telling them his confidence that God will complete His work for them. Later, in Philippians 3, Paul states that his focus is not on his past accomplishments or achievements. He announces that he is forgetting what is behind him and straining toward what’s ahead of him as he pursues God's upward call in his life.

It may seem impossible to “forget” what happened to you. I completely understand that; our brains don’t eliminate memories like our computers delete files or a trash service takes our garbage away. However, we can set aside what happened in our past because God has. God forgives our past because of what Jesus did for us, and our future is secure.

God is at work, God has a plan, and God will finish what He starts. In a world where we’ve been hurt and betrayed by others' promises, we serve a God who is both a promise-maker and a promise-keeper.

God is greater than your past. Your past isn’t a life sentence. God is moving in your life, and what He will do in and through you in the future is beyond your comprehension. So, today is not the day to give up. I encourage you to keep looking for signs of God at work as you hold onto the promises of Romans 8:26-30.

It has been an enormous honor to encourage you with this plan, and I’d love to keep encouraging you. Click here for a complimentary copy of my Looking for God Action Plan, a resource that will equip you to discern where God is at work around you and how you can get involved in what He’s doing.