I assume most everyone who has reached adulthood has things in their past they would like to forget. It’s human nature to block out the things we consider bad and embrace things we think are good. However, there are usually things that we just can’t seem to forget. If they are painful things they seem to always be lurking in our thoughts and just when we think they are gone, they pop up. Sometimes people dwell on the “if only” things in their lives, and it keeps them living in the past, so much that it impairs their future. God never intended for Christians to live a defeated life because of our past. God wants us to be victorious. In today’s passage, Paul gives us a good narrative on this very process of forgetting the past.
I’m sure Paul spent many nights in regret for his past as a persecutor of Christians. In Philippians 3:11, he continues writing about his hope for the future. He makes it clear his happiness and hope are in Heaven, but in verse 12 he understands he is still to push forward until the day he is with Jesus for eternity.
Philippians 3:11-12 “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also, I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.”
Paul never felt he had “arrived” in his walk with Jesus. He understood the danger of placing confidence in himself. If you feel you have reached a status in your Christian walk where you can just breeze through and maintain, you are wrong! That kind of thinking is based on pride and God hates pride. That kind of thinking and actions will allow you to let your guard down and you will be easy prey for Satan. Paul understood that it was only by the grace of God that he had the hope of eternal life and that he must continue to push forward, seeking to forget the things of the past.
Some might feel he could have held onto some of the things of his past and used them for Christ. But Paul understood to be in Christ meant a full surrender to Him as Lord of his life. Recently I watched one of my grandsons run in a track meet. I noticed he was continuing to look forward and he was gaining on his opponent. He was focused. and the only thing on his mind was finishing the race while giving maximum effort. There were others who were slowing down, some because they could not maintain their pace because they had sprinted too soon. Others because they were more concerned about where their opponent was and looking back slowed them down. This is a good example of how we should run the Christian race. It is a marathon, not a sprint. We must stay focused on the prize, even giving a glance at the temptations of this word will slow us down. Looking back at the “what if’s” puts imagined barriers in our progress forward. This is a tool of Satan. Living in the land of regrets can cause depression and decreases our effectiveness as Christians. The only good that looking back can do is help us to determine with the help of God, to not repeat our past. It should cause us to be grateful we are not there anymore.
Paul understood the negative effects of looking back. He determined he would press forward. He understood the goal that was ahead, and he was anticipating it with great joy. We too need to realize we can’t do anything to change the past. It’s a wicked tool of Satan to stop our progress or slow it down. We are playing into his hands when we spend our energy on the past. We are to follow Christ with vigor, to run with our focus on the prize. We are to understand the purpose Christ has for us and continue to serve until the day we die. I’ve known some who think they have done their time in Christian service and now they can rest. I’ve known some who feel there is nothing for them to do, but rest assured if God has left you here, He has a purpose, a ministry for you until the day you die. God makes no mistakes, and you have a purpose that will glorify Him if you are willing to do it! Run hard and as fast as you can toward Jesus. Don’t look back, forget the past by not allowing yourself to dwell on it. Yesterday is gone, today is what we have. Use it wisely.
Philippians 3:13-14 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
