The Past That Does Not Limit My Future!

Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. - Judges 11:29a

It really isn't fair just to point out this portion of a verse as the lead in but it makes the point. So many never enter the Christian walk because, though they have made a profession of faith in Jesus, they live a life that says, "Even Jesus cannot save me from my past. Even the God who redeems all of me cannot use someone who has done or who has been what I have..."

Yet, we all love to see the underdog triumph! We have a natural affinity for the flight of the Phoenix! We've all heard stories of individuals who have overcome extreme hardship borne out of their childhood years. When we speak of children of alcoholics, orphans who never have parents, those who have lost parents to a fatal crash, or with childhood disease - these are all difficult circumstances to overcome.

Jephthah was a man who overcame his obstacles and refused to allow his circumstances to prevent him from becoming great in God's sight. He was born to the Old Testament patriarch Gilead. But Jephthah was the seeming result of his father's adulterous encounter with a prostitute. Gilead's wife, who had bore more sons, decided to reject Jephthah, and drove him away from their home saying, You are not going to get any inheritance in our family because you are the son of another woman. Imagine the rejection this young man felt as he was cast away from his own family.

I'm not sure that what this experience originally taught Jephthah was a great lesson. He became a hardened warrior. Today he probably would have been part of a street gang. As he got older, his reputation as a warrior became known to those in his country, so much so that when the Ammonites made war on Israel, the elders of Gilead went to Jephthah and asked him to be their commander. How would he respond. These were the very ones who did not reach out to him all those years in between. Now, it was the same household, the same people asking for his help. Jephthah had to fight off those feelings of rejection from previous years.

Didn't you hate me and drive me from my father's house? he responded. He overcame his hurt and pain, and responded to the call God had on his life.

It is said that if we were to help the butterfly remove itself from the cocoon, the butterfly would not be strong enough to survive. It is the struggle that prepares the butterfly to become strong enough to fly. Without the struggle in the cocoon, it could not survive as a butterfly. Jephthah used all of who he was and all that he had experienced in order to be the best he could be for the highest good!

Perhaps it doesn't seem this way to you but the Lord prepares each of us in similar ways. Some of our childhoods seem to have been harsh and born from a seemingly unloving God. Certainly if not an unloving God they were propagated in the harshness of an environment that was less than joyful to us. However, we do have a hope. It is the hope of Jephthah. Like he the Lord knows our struggle and will make our life an instrument in His hand if we will follow Him with an upright heart. He does make all things beautiful in His time if we are willing to be patient.

Perhaps you are feeling rejection. Perhaps you are feeling disqualified. You are not and you are not alone. Embrace your past. Allow yourself to see life from God's perspective. Take the pain and use it against the enemy of your soul. Rejoice in your victory because that victory is complete in Jesus Christ! I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~