September 16
Isaiah 23-25
Psalm 105:1-6
Proverbs 22:28-29
Philippians 3:12-21
Leaving the Past in the Past
“Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14
This is such a freeing passage of scripture. I use it often in mentoring relationships. You cannot undo the past. You cannot change the things you did in the past and you cannot change the things in the past that were done to you. I am convinced that one of Satan’s favorite schemes against Christians is to convince them that they cannot be effective for Christ now because of all the stuff they did in the past. That is a lie. I believe that one of the reasons this passage is included in scripture is because God wants us to know that He can redeem us, restore us, and use us regardless of all the evil, ugly things we may have done. Paul persecuted and killed Christians. It doesn’t get much worse than that. He was responsible for the deaths of God’s children. Paul could easily have decided that it would be best for Him to just live a quiet life in the background supporting others in ministry because God couldn’t use someone who had done the things he had done. If he had chosen that, it is likely we would not have most of the New Testament, the gospel might have never been spread to the Gentiles, and we would have never heard about Jesus. Instead, to move forward and allow God to use him, he had to make a conscious choice to forget what was in his past and keep his eyes focused ahead. No doubt, Satan tried to torment him with the things he had done. Paul was not insulated from Satan’s attacks and I’m sure Satan took every opportunity he could to fill his mind with lies and doubt, but Paul refused to listen. He chose to keep his eyes focused on Jesus and the goal of his calling. In humility, he recognized that God was at work in him to bring him into full maturity. He knew he had not reached the level of perfection, but that he needed to keep striving toward the goal. That is the secret for us. We cannot allow Satan to paralyze us with guilt. If we have confessed our sins and asked for forgiveness, then we need to move on. We cannot keep living in the past.
Embrace the forgiveness He provides and focus on Jesus, allowing Him to work in you to bring you to full maturity in faith.
It is also important that we do not dwell on the past things that were done to us. We cannot change what someone did to us. Whether they have asked for forgiveness or not, it is important that we forgive them and move on. We may not be able to resolve the issues, but we can choose to leave the past in the past and move forward. Bitterness and anger will cause more damage in our lives than the hurt inflicted on us by others. We can choose to lay the hurt and anger at the feet of Jesus and leave it with Him to deal with. No good comes from living in the past.
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