"...One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, by some miracle, we could begin again, knowing what we know now. Things would be different, wouldn’t they? Someone said, "It’s too bad life can’t be lived in reverse." If that were the case, you could use some of that mature knowledge to avoid making the mistakes which you ultimately regret later. But, that’s not the way life is lived. In fact, I suppose you have to make the mistakes to gain the knowledge. And we have all made our share of mistakes.
In fact, there have been many times in my life when things just didn’t turn out right. During some of those times, I found myself wishing I could turn back the hands of time. How I wanted to start all over! I believe those times come in all of our lives. Some have made the wrong career choice and wish they could go back to school to be retrained, but now they must support a family. Some have made a bad business deal and now they are ruined. How they wish they could go back. A girl finds herself in trouble and her heart is broken. How she wishes she could go back and start over, but its too late. A failed marriage disrupts family life and deeply wounds everyone involved. If only we could begin again. These kinds of events occur every day and no one is exempt from them. Think of the things in your life that you like a chance to change. How we would like a do-over sometimes.
We call these memories the "past." Obviously, you can’t turn back the hands of time. What’s done is done. The mistakes we’ve made are there and there is nothing we can do to change them. But there is hope. The good news of the Gospel is that it is possible to begin again. There is forgiveness for the past in Christ. That’s good news.
But there is some bad news with the good news. Unfortunately, there are many who have received this forgiveness, but they are still plagued by the past.
For most of us, the past holds many good memories. We remember the good times: times when we were happy and enjoying life; times when we were with someone special. We remember the special events: birthdays, graduations, weddings and anniversaries. Good memories are a wonderful thing. It’s great to be able to tune them in and play them back. It brings a smile to our face. We can certainly thank God for the good memories.
The past can also give us perspective. Although it has been said that, "The only thing we learn from the past is that we don’t learn from the past, we can learn from the past." The past can teach us many things about living in the present. The past is like the rear view mirror on our car. As we move forward we regularly glance at it to keep us aware of what is behind us. The past makes us more knowledgeable and wiser. And in that regard, the past is good.
But the past also has a dark side. The past can be a prison. You see, it’s possible for the past to put us in bondage. Along with the good memories, there are the memories of times of failure. Sometimes our memory can serve to haunt us. Our failures can cause us to see ourselves as failures, or as unable to break the patterns of failure in our lives. We stereotype ourselves, and thereby put ourselves in bondage. Many people live today plagued by their past. In the most extreme cases people sit in mental hospitals constantly reliving the tragic events of yesterday. They are trapped by the things that have been, and can’t seem to see beyond them.
So how do we deal with the past? Some people relive the past. They recount the events of the past in great detail in their minds over and over again. All of the negative emotions which they felt then, they feel again. And the beat themselves up for the events that are forever gone.
Some people surrender to the past. They decide that they will never rise above the past and resign themselves to be what the past has made them. After all, the lot has been cast, and they are a product of their past.
Others defy the past and refuse to be dominated by it. They recognize that while the past is an unchangeable part of their history, they can do something about themselves and how they deal with the memories of the past.
This is the key to how we deal with the past. There are basically three things you must do to effectively conquer your past. (1) The first is that you must recognize the past for what it is, the past. It is over, done, gone, finished, ended, passed. You can’t change one thing that happened back then, whether back then was years ago or yesterday. (2) The second thing that you must do is recognize the satanic strategy in reminding you of the past. His strategy is to discourage you and defeat you. (3) The third thing you must recognize is what you can do about the past. While you can’t change the past, you can change the way you respond to the memories of the past.
But Paul, the Apostle, tells us that the way to deal with the past is to forget it. Listen to what he says, "One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind..." Paul is saying that the way to deal with the past is to forget it. We must develop what I call a "divine amnesia."
When I speak about forgetting the past, of course, I’m not talking about forgetting it mentally. Although there are many things I wish I could forget, unfortunately, God created our minds to be incredibly powerful. Even though we might not remember something consciously, sub-consciously it is always there. Every act, word, event, situation and circumstance is imbedded forever in our minds. When Paul speaks about forgetting the past, he means that we must forget it in the sense that we no longer allow it to control our lives. Unless we do, we will always be on a leash. We will attempt to move forward in life, only to be snatched back time and again.
You may be saying, "Well, it’s easier said than done," and you’re right. But, by God’s grace it can be done. You see, Christ can liberate us from the past. The reason Christ came to this earth was to offer His life on the Cross so that our sins might be forgiven. Christ can forgive our past. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ can release us from sin and the guilt of sin. There is nothing in your past too great for God to handle. There is no sin too big for God to forgive. Christ can enable us to release the past and move on to what can be in the present. He can enable us to avoid living in the "what has been" and live, instead, in the "what can be."
We must not only develop a divine amnesia in terms of forgetting the past; but also engage in a deliberate activity in the present. Listen to the words of the Apostle, "One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead." In order to deal with the past effectively, we must live in the present actively.
One of the keys to living in the present is the need for replacing pessimism of the past with optimism. It’s very hard to face failure in your own personal life and come away with an optimistic attitude. Pessimism seems to reign.
Most pessimism is unhealthy. It creates a cycle of despair. Many times, we become locked into pessimistic ways of thinking, and we end up bound mentally by these patterns of thought. Past failures may suggest to us that we will never succeed. After all, we have tried and failed. But often that is not the reality of the situation. There was an experiment done with the Great Northern Pike where the fish was placed into a tank with its favorite food, minnows. The problem was that a glass divider was inserted into the tank between the Pike and the minnows. Every time the Pike went for the minnows, he bumped his nose into this glass divider. Finally, convinced that the minnows were beyond reach, he gave up. When the divider was removed, the Great Northern Pike did not go for even one minnow. Sometimes, we are like that Pike. We’ve been convinced that we could never break free from the patterns of defeat and failure that have bound us. But that is not true.
God is an optimist. I know that because when Jesus ascended into heaven, He put His disciples in charge of winning the world. But we can be optimists, too. We can be optimists when we come to understand that God truly has a plan for our lives. We can begin to look to the future with hope. A divine expectation can be created within our hearts. And an eager anticipation of what are the possibilities for our life can replace those negative patterns of thought which bind us. If we would live successfully in the present, we must not only put the past aside, but we must replace pessimism with optimism. There are good things which lie ahead.
But not only must we replace pessimism with optimism, we must also replace passivism with activism. The past seeks to trap us by discouraging us to the point where we are just so exhausted we don’t want to try anymore. Depressed people don’t even like to get out of bed. They sit around in their pajamas all day long or engage in hours of mind-numbing television. Sometimes the first step out of that situation is to get out of bed, put your clothes on and do something. You see, we need to act on faith in what God can do. Paul says that he reaches forward to what lies ahead. Here is someone who is involved with the living of life. He is not merely content to be acted upon. He must act himself. And if we would succeed, we must act as well. Someone has said that it’s hard to steer a parked car. In other words, parked cars go nowhere. You could turn the steering wheel all you like, but it doesn’t change its direction. Only as we begin to move are we able to accomplish those things we would like to see come to pass. We must be active.
Jesus calls us to follow Him. The Christian life is a commitment to do something as well as be something. The Christian life has been likened to a walk, a race, a fight. Those are all action terms. When Jesus calls us, He calls us not simply to believe in Him intellectually, but to follow Him in the living of our lives. But it’s possible for a person to believe in Jesus intellectually like he believes in Napoleon or George Washington. You can hold an intellectual belief without making a life commitment to it. But that is not biblical faith. Faith in Jesus means we put our trust in Him. We trust Him with our lives. As we commit ourselves to live for Him daily.
Paul said he was reaching forward to what lies ahead. The picture we have here is someone stretching forward, like a runner in a race, seeking to win, not merely to finish. But if we would win over the past, we must also be willing to aggressively stretch forward.
But we must take willingness one step further. As we stretch forward, we must possess the quality of a determined attitude. Listen again to the words of the Apostle Paul, "One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Here is a man who is not content with being willing. He is not simply reaching forward to what lies ahead, he is giving his all to the endeavor. He is determined in his attitude that nothing will deter him. We must have this determined attitude as well if we would succeed in conquering the demons of the past.
You see, we are in a real warfare. To be plagued by the past is to be under spiritual attack. That is why we must counter-attack by employing a strategy like Paul’s, whereby we forget the past and focus on the future.
Perhaps a closing thought on how to do this from the life of Jehoshaphat would help. In 2 Chronicles 20 we find Jehoshaphat, king of Israel, in big trouble. He had an enemy, actually three enemy nations about to attack. We can apply the principles he applied to the enemy of the bondage of the past.
He did several important things. Firstly, he identified the enemy. We must recognize that there is a real and present force behind the negative emotions we feel from past events. Secondly, he took it to the Lord. In verses 3-4 he proclaims a fast in order to seek help from the Lord. Thirdly, he admitted his inadequacy. Jehoshaphat, speaking to God, said in verse 12, For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on Thee. Fourthly, he turned his attention to God. Fifthly, he was told to relax in faith. God spoke to Jehoshaphat in verse 15 and said, Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s. In other words, God was saying to quit struggling and relax.
Sometimes we are tempted to work things out for ourselves. When we fail, we feel that we have disappointed God. We feel that we have let God down. But we cannot let God down because we don’t hold God up. He holds us up. We don’t have God in our hands. He has us in his hands. What God wants us to do is to allow Him to work through us. If you will relax in faith, God will enable you to forget the past and focus on the future He has for you.
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