Past sins, mistakes, failures, rejections, disappointments, etc. can become weights that burden the soul and rob the heart of any hope for the future. Life then becomes an endless cycle of day-to-day survival with no hope that things will ever be different.
DON'T LET YOUR PAST ROB YOU OF YOUR FUTURE
What future? How can you say that I have a Future, with all the weight of my past pulling me down and keeping me from moving forward with me life?
Who then, do we know according to the Bible, had a past that was so horrific, so terrible, that once given the opportunity to leave it behind, was thinking the very same way we would in the same circumstance? His name was Saul who became the Apostle Paul....
In Phillipians 3, he says these very words........
12 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, who was Saul, remembers where he was in his past life, how he persecuted and destroyed the lives of so many believers, and realizes what Jesus did for him, how He changed his life, so that his future was secured, not because of what he did, or is doing, but of what Christ had done, through His love and Grace.
Let me add, we cannot change the past, by any means, it has happened, no matter how hard we may work at it, WE CANNOT CHANGE IT....but, we can leave it buried, leave it behind, turn towards Christ, and follow His lead, as Paul is doing. Imagine if you will our past as a log chain, every link added weighs us down the more, to a point where it would take a miracle to have it removed....
13 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, Here is the act that we CAN DO, country singer Randy Travis had a hit called Digging up Bones, just a song writers way of reminding us of how easy it is to dig up the past, Paul says, "I am going to let the past go", and follow after my future in Christ. How important it is for us to follow his lead, let us be reminded of Lot's wife, who was warned NOT TO LOOK BACK, who couldn't stand it and at the moment she gazed upon her past being destroyed turned into a statue of salt....looking back is absolutely no good, looking forward by faith, taking each step by faith, holding on to the hand of God by faith, let these three keep us headed in the direction our future. How can you say this? You don't know my past!!! I don't want to know your past, God already knows it, and is willing to hold your hand and lead you away from it, all you have to do is grab His hand....
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Here is where we accept that fact that we can leave our past behind, not in our strength, but in Christs', reaching out for the prize....peace, heaven, joy, love, grace, mercy....you name it, it's all packaged together, awaiting our decision, our choice to follow God's way, God's will in our life. Let us also see that we "PRESS" or strive to stay with Christ, as we will be reminded many times by Satan, of our past, it will not be easy, not to look back, not to yearn for the things of old, but, the fight is well worth the reward.....let me assure you that it is....in Jesus name.
