Don’t look back. You will never arrive at your destiny while looking back. This understanding is true naturally as well as spiritually. Just think of the natural implications. If you were merely walking down the street while looking backward, you would eventually run into something or off the curb. Pain and embarrassment would likely ensue.
Spiritually speaking, we can look at Lot’s wife. Even though angels told her not to look back, she ignored the warnings, which cost her her life. She had no desire for her future because she was hanging on to her past.
The Apostle Paul made clear how he could fulfill the high calling on his life. Philippians 3:12-14 says, 12” Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul knew that to achieve what God had in store, he had to forget the things that were behind him by pressing forward. If anyone could have allowed their past to stunt their future, it was Paul. He was a known Christian hater and murderer. How do you overcome the guilt of standing by and promoting the death of a guiltless man of God who simply saw to it that the widows were fed? He had to press passed the memory of the beatings he suffered, the arrests and imprisonments, and the shackles and shipwreck.
Paul even had pressure from all those he once was connected to in his past. He was trained by the day’s best to be a Pharisee of Pharisees. These were the enemies of Jesus and His message. Those who once befriended him were now taking vows to kill him. Not to mention he wasn’t trusted by many of the believers who knew his past. Moving forward wouldn’t be an easy task. But to lay hold of the prize, it was necessary.
The secret was in forgetting. Forgetting is not dwelling. Instead, forgetting is forgiving, letting go, going free, and having faith in God’s justice and judgment regarding everything that happened in your past.
God, Himself is the picture of forgetting. Hebrews 10:16-17 says, “16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds, I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
Isaiah 43:25 tells us, “25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.
Then again, in Hebrews 8:12, we read, “12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
Do you really want to finish well? Do you want to lay hold of everything God has planned for you? If you do, it will require you to forget what is behind you. Even the things that you accomplished. They are now complete. That time is over. There are new things now that still lie ahead.
1 Corinthians 9:24 “24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” This year let’s agree to press toward the prize and do all that God has called us to do and do it free. The year 2023 is waiting to see what you will accomplish for the Kingdom. God bless you as you follow Him.
Jaime Luce
