Looking Forward!

“…But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13b, 14 NIV84).

In my last blog, I wrote about Lot’s wife’s costly look back at the life that she was leaving behind.  Perhaps she was just curious, but more likely, she regretted what she was giving up.  Today, I want to draw our attention to Paul’s comments about “looking back”.

When the Apostle Paul tells us to “forget what is behind”, we need to understand his past.  Before Paul encountered Christ on the road to Damascus, he was a devout Jew, convinced that those who followed Christ were blasphemers.  He stood calmly by, guarding the coats of those who stoned Stephen (Acts 8:1), the first Christian martyr.  He led the persecution that broke out in Jerusalem after Stephen’s death, going from house to house to drag out and imprison men and women who followed Christ (Acts 8:3).  His trip to Damascus that fateful day was no pleasure trip.  He had obtained permission from the high priest to go to the Synagogues in Damascus and arrest any Christians that he found (Acts 9:1,2).  In short, he did everything he could to destroy the Church of Christ!

Then, he met Christ on the road to Damascus, and his passion for Christ and for sharing the Gospel message exceeded his former desire to persecute the Church.  He became the first Missionary, taking the Gospel to much of then known world.  He endured prison, forty lashes minus one, beatings with rods, being stoned, and multiple shipwrecks. He lived in constant danger from both Jews and Gentiles.  He went without sleep and food and was often cold (I Corinthians 11:23 – 28). He did all this for the sake of Christ.

Despite all that he endured to spread the Gospel, I can’t help but wonder if there were days when the damage he did before he met Christ came to mind.  I’m sure he had regrets, but he also knew that looking back would not change what he had done in the past.  He also knew that because of Christ, those sins had already been forgiven and forgotten by Christ (I John 1:9).  Therefore, focusing on the sins of his past distracted him from the tasks that lay before him.  He had been called to bring the message of Christ to the Gentiles, and he labored daily to fulfill that goal.  He knew it was time to forget the past and look forward to the goal Christ had set before him.  Press on!

We all have things in our past that we regret, but we can’t go back and change them.  We can thank God that He has given us a Savior who will accept our confession and repentance and wash those sins away permanently.  Don’t dwell on a past that you can’t change.  Press on towards the future that God has prepared for you!

Philippians 3:12 – 14

I John 1:8 -9