Bible Study A Question About 'The Past'

[Surviving]

A friend and I were talking and he brought up the topic of the past and said comments such as “The past is relevant to the present†“What happens in the past is exactly what leads up to the present†and “Day by day you build on your life... and today is the sum total of all of your yesterdaysâ€Â. I asked if the Bible said the things that he had mentioned before (see comments in quotation marks) and his reply was “It says very closely to what I said... we build our lives day by day with our words and actions... today is the sum total of all of our yesterdays. God tells us to build our house (life) wiselyâ€Â

So anyway today I was doing a bit of bible study as I am new to it and have learnt not to just listen to what others say and to read for myself and for the life of me, I cannot find reference to the things he said which are:


- The past is relevant to the present
- What happens in the past is exactly what leads up to the present
- We build our lives day by day with our words and actions... today is the sum total of all of our yesterdays. God tells us to build our house (life) wisely

The only reference I have found is a few passages on building solid foundations but that comment was not what was bothering me. He said that the bible said the things very closely related to the above regarding the past and I cannot find them. What I have found regarding the past is not what he was saying. I am not interested in the past in reference to ‘sin’ as I have read those and that was not what he was referring too. He said the above things were said in the bible and I cannot find them. I was hoping that someone could enlighten me and tell me where I can find reference to the things he said in the Bible please?

-Sighs- I just want to know where in the Bible are the things that he mentioned. I have read and studied for over 4 hours today and I just am unable to find where it has reference to the things he said and am worried that I might have over looked something.

Thankyou

Blessings,
Surviving

 

[cj]

There are two histories, divine history and human history.

Human history is found within divine history, thus human history is submitted to divine history.

Everything that we have gone through has been allowed by God to bring us to the point we're at. But our hope lies ahead of us, and this hope should be the vision that we strive for as the reality of our living.

Past history can be useful to God in His hands, but it can also be useful to God's enemy when placed in his hands.

One of the weak points of many believer's walk is that of not having a proper view of God's economy for believers.

Why were you saved?

If everything in your past was for bringing you to this point (being saved), then having the answer to the question of why you were saved will give you a clearer view of what your past was all about.


God declared Himself with the statement "IAM"...... this sounds very present, and not past.

God is a present God. And to be one with Him is to be one who walks in the present.

You know, it was a good thing for the Bereans to have searched the scriptures concerning what Paul was saying to them...... but God's present speaking was coming out of Paul, who was right there with them.


In love,
cj

 

[yesha]

- The past is relevant to the present
- What happens in the past is exactly what leads up to the present
- We build our lives day by day with our words and actions... today is the sum total of all of our yesterdays. God tells us to build our house (life) wisely

I don't think there is a passage that would paraphrase to "today is the sum total of all of our yesterdays."

There is however, I think, the idea that living wisely can be an advantage when your future becomes your present. For example, someone might be as wise as and ant and wisely prepare themselves for the comming winter (Pr 30:25). However, like in the case of Luke 12:20, God is ultimately in control. Our actions of the past may influance our future, but ultimately only in the way that God decides. So today may be the sum total of all our yesterdays, in the sense that the wisdom that we have implemented in our past can shape our present in a general kind of way, but as is demonstrated with Job, our present if fully decided by God, regardless of anything we have done. In an instant God can take away everything we have, and it may have nothing to do with our past.

 

[Surviving]

Thankyou very much for your replies, it has helped me to understand

Blessings,

Surviving