What Does the Bible Say About Living In The Past?
It’s easy to miss those “good ole days.” To wish for a simpler time. But that got me thinking one time, about whether or not that is really best. Perhaps, you’ve wondered the same thing. So, what does the bible say about living in the past.
As Christians, we are called to put aside our past and live for the future glory and promise of God’s Kingdom. Abraham is a great example of someone who lived with this eternal perspective. To get out of living in the past, we need to have a foreigner, temporary, and heavenly mindset as we walk in faith and obedience to God.
Bible Verses About Living In the Past
The Bible talks a lot about how Christians are to live. How they are to view their lives in light of Chirst’s work on the cross, and whether or not they should live in the past. Here are a few verses that talk about living in the past as a Christian.
Isaiah 43:18-19
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Ecclesiastes 7:10
Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Philippians 3:13-14
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 2:20-21
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Living In The Future
The verses above make clear that Christians are not called to live in the past. Especially, our lives before Christ.
On the contrary, these verses seem to encourage believers to look forward, to run the race before them, and to look forward to new things.
In short, Christians are called to live in the future. So, we are to have a forward looking perspective.
Thankfully, this doesn’t mean we have to be sci-fi, AI, futuristic nerds. Rather, we are called to have an eternal perspective. We are to look forward to the culmination of all of God’s promises.
Forward to the culmination of all time when the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. When He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever (Isaiah 9:7).
A Biblical Example of Living in the Future
But what does it look like to have this eternal perspective? Well, let’s look at an example from the Bible: Abraham.
Recall, Abraham was called by God to leave his people and country and travel to a place where God would show him. When Abraham arrived at this place God promised him descendents as numerous as the stars, and all the land his eyes could see.
But Abraham lived in tents. Waited decades for one son. And at the end of his life only owned his wife’s gravesite.
But the author of Hebrews writes,
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Hebrews 11:8-10.
Did you catch that?
Abraham was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder was God. Abraham was looking past his promises of physical prosperity and blessing, to view his spiritual prosperity and blessing.
Abraham was living in the future. As if these promises were already a reality. Why? Because they were guaranteed by God. That’s what faith is–living as if God’s promises to us are already fulfilled.
The author of Hebrews goes on to write,
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:13-16
The author is saying that if they were thinking about their past, if they were living in their past, then they would have returned to the city they left. They had daily opportunities to return, but they did not. Instead, they longed for a better country–a heavenly one.
When they died. They saw it, not from a distance, but up close in all its splendor and glory.
How to Biblically Get Out of Living In the Past
So, what can we learn about how to biblically get out of living in the past and have this eternal perspective? Well, there are a few things we can learn from the story of Abraham.
Have a foreigner mindset.
Abraham and his descendents were foreigners in the land that God promised them. They had to learn to live in their land, but not be a part of their land. Likewise, we are called to be in the world, but not of it. We are strangers, travelers, traveling through this world to our eternal destination at Christ’s side.
Have a temporary mindset.
Our life on this earth is temporary. All our troubles, heartaches, and pain, is temporary. Brief. One day Jesus will wipe away every tear. There will be no more pain, or crying, or death.
All the great things that we love about this life will pale in comparison to what we’ll love about the next. Paul writes, “And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!”
Have a heavenly mindset.
Third, we can have a heavenly mindset. Abraham constantly looked forward to the day he would see God’s promises fulfilled. He looked forward, not only to the fulfillment of his physical blessings, but his spiritual ones as well.
Abraham’s heavenly mindset is what kept him in the land of Canaan instead of returning back to his home country. Abraham lived as if these promises were a present reality for him. This brings us to the last point.
Walk in faith.
Lastly, to let go of the past, to quit living in the past and have this eternal perspective, we must walk by faith. This retelling of Abraham’s story, in Hebrews, is found in what is called the Hall of Faith. Why?
Because we “By faith…” this person did this. And “by faith…” this person did that. By faith. By faith. By faith. Abraham lived by faith. Abraham had a heavenly mindset by faith. Abraham had a foreigner and temporary mindset by faith.
By faith. By faith. By faith. By faith.
By faith Abraham obeyed God. By faith he made his home.
So we, too, must learn to live by faith. To obey by faith. To make our home by faith. To count our future blessings a present reality. So, that God may not ashamed to be called our God. One day we, too, will see the promised city that God has prepared for us, in all its splendor and glory.
