End Generational Curses
John 9:1-3 While Jesus was walking, he saw a man who had been blind since the time he was born. Jesus’ followers asked him, “Teacher, why was this man born blind? Whose sin made it happen? Was it his own sin or that of his parents?” Jesus answered, “It was not any sin of this man or his parents that caused him to be blind. He was born blind so that he could be used to show what great things God can do.
Have you ever felt as though your past has dealt you a bad hand? Perhaps you inherited genes that’ve caused you health issues. Or some of the less than ideal attitudes or behaviours of your elders continue to plague you. Not everything that’s handed down to us is sweetness and light.
That perhaps sounds a bit pessimistic but hey, even if you had great parents – as I did – they weren’t perfect. My mother suffered from anxiety all her life. My father was a smoker and a diabetic – which eventually killed him at the age of just 74.
And, somewhat surprisingly, the Bible talks about generational curses. So much so that these people interacting with Jesus assumed that those curses were perhaps this man’s problem:
John 9:1-3 While Jesus was walking, he saw a man who had been blind since the time he was born. Jesus’ followers asked him, “Teacher, why was this man born blind? Whose sin made it happen? Was it his own sin or that of his parents?” Jesus answered, “It was not any sin of this man or his parents that caused him to be blind. He was born blind so that he could be used to show what great things God can do.
Whatever’s been passed down to you, Jesus came to set you free. And your part in that? Ghanaian pastor Mensa Otabil puts it like this, “Often, so-called generational curses are simply people repeating the same choices and patterns that they saw in their parents. Eating the same food your father ate, and you find his diseases are following you. Often, it’s simply a choice to live your life differently from the examples you saw.”
So, break the cycle. If you didn’t come from a good family, make sure that a good family comes from you.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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