It's Time to Forget

Phil 3:13-14

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

This advice from God’s Word has stood the test of time. This right here is some very relevant and practical advice for us at the start of 2017. You don't have to live your life imprisoned by your past.

All of us have failed in some way in our lives over the last year.

We probably won’t see our failures recorded in history, but they are recorded in our hearts and minds.

For many of us our failures are painful memories. Maybe for you it is a memory of how you failed in a relationship. You made the wrong decisions, said and did the wrong things and the relationship ended. Some of you who are parents probably know that you failed your children in some way. Some of you children are aware that you have failed your parents.

More than likely many of us know that we have failed ourselves in some ways. And all of us should know that in some way we have failed God.

What God is saying to us here is that we must not allow ourselves to get lost in our past failures… That we don’t dwell on our past so much that it stops us from moving forward into the future that God has for us.

The start of a New Year is a great time for us to let go of our pasts and rise to that challenge…To say to yourself, "with the help of God I am going to let go of my past. I am going to stop torturing myself about what I did or didn’t do. This is a good time to stop being chained to your past failures.

God is saying here in His Word that He doesn’t want you to go through your life branding yourself as a failure, because HE certainly doesn’t see you that way! Jesus Christ died on the cruel Cross of Calvary so that we could be FORGIVEN! When we become Christians, that forgiveness becomes a reality in our lives. When we receive Christ’s forgiveness it allows us to forgive ourselves and forget our failures.

Maybe you need to do that right here this first week of 2017. Maybe you need to simply accept God’s forgiveness and then forgive yourself. It's time to forget!