Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do; Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).
How often do you talk with someone and hear about "what was" or "what could have been"? Not even in the short-term sense, but what may have happened years ago and why they can't do something now. Living like that is not forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. It is allowing yesterday to jeopardize your life today.
Many of us seem to struggle with "forgetting the past," even at the time he wrote Philippians, Paul admits he hadn't mastered "forgetting" yet.
We all have our "should haves," "could haves," and "what ifs" in life, and we can learn from them and use them to grow without letting them ruin our progress, but we need to "forget" in a sense "what could have been" and look toward "what can be."
Maybe things were "easier" back then, maybe we had "more," maybe we had "somebody," but we can't try to live both in the past and in the present.
We each have to decide where we are going to live—in the past where things "were," or in the present seeking the amazing life Jesus has planned for us. Paul shared with us where he was striving to live.
I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things (Philippians 3:8).
For each day we don't live knowing and growing in Christ, we are losing time, effort and the opportunity to do so, as well as not achieving our God-given potential.
Before we can expect to experience the new life God has for us (by pressing on and straining toward what is ahead), we have to determine, deal with and forget the things which have held us back (or controlled us) for so long. Leave the past in the past. Learn from your mistakes, don't carry any regrets and live for today.
We need to have the faith to trust God enough to let go of the old and embrace the new. We won't be able to walk into the future if we have a foot in the past.
