“You must undo everything you became in response to the negatives in life.” 

2 Corinthians 5:17 and John 10:10

Life consists of constant changes: changes to our surroundings, our circumstances, our relationships, our realities. When these changes occur, we respond to them sometimes almost without thought. We simply engage with the change either positively or negatively and it all kind of flows from there. Sometimes, we actively choose and other times, it’s simply biological. It’s easy to respond positively when things change in our favor. It takes discipline to respond calmly when things are falling apart.

There is a distinct and necessary need to unpack past responses to negative instances in life and understand how they can potentially alter our personality and change the very core of who we are. At one point in my life, I needed to return to my core beliefs about my faith. I began going through the process of deconstructing my faith and what I believed and why I believed. We all know the song “Jesus Loves Me” and we all know the phrase, “God is good all the time.” One day, I began to ask myself if I really believed those truths because logic and carnality will tell you that if Jesus really did love you and if God was really good, certain things just simply wouldn’t happen in life. But we have to be reminded that faith is neither logical nor reasonable. We can’t see God, yet we believe in Him because by Him and through Him, we can see everything else.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” In John 10:10, Jesus Himself said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Once we became believers in Christ and grasped on to the knowledge that He loves us and demonstrated that love through the shedding of His blood, it was settled. We can walk in freedom and leave captivity and those thoughts that contradict truth behind.

Nowhere in His Word did God say that life would be easy. Jesus’ closest friends and disciples were persecuted mercilessly and hardly lived lives of leisure and ease. And because of this fact, we can rest in the comfort of knowing that we are not by-products of life’s circumstances. We are not residuals of past hurts, disappointments, and regrets. Instead, we can respond to the negatives in life by developing stronger faith reactions on purpose. We can be free from the captive grip of life’s troubles. We can. We absolutely can.

Prayer for Release: God, thank you that I am a new creature created in You. I fully believe for my release from the bonds of the past, including the circumstances that may have changed who I am. Help me, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, find the peace that I know You want me to have.