Scripture Reference: Philippians 3:12-16
Direction
Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. – Philippians 3:13c.
The unsaved person is controlled by the past, but the Christian running the race looks toward the future. Imagine what would happen on the race course if the charioteers (or the runners) started looking behind them! It is bad enough for a plowman to look back (Luke 9:62), but for a charioteer to do so means a possible collision and serious injury.
We are accustomed to saying “past, present, future,” but we should view time as flowing from the future into the present and then into the past. At least, the believer should be future-oriented, “forgetting what lies behind.” Please keep in mind that in Bible terminology, “to forget” does not mean “to fail to remember.” Apart from senility, hypnosis, or a brain malfunction, no mature person can forget what has happened in the past. We may wish that we could erase certain bad memories, but we cannot. “To forget” in the Bible means “no longer to be influenced by or affected by.” When God promises, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more” (Hebrews 10:17), He is not suggesting that He will conveniently have a bad memory! This is impossible with God. What God is saying is, “I will no longer hold their sins against them. Their sins can no longer affect their standing with Me or influence My attitude toward them.”
So, “forgetting what lies behind” does not suggest an impossible feat of mental and psychological gymnastics by which we try to erase the sins and mistakes of the past. It simply means that we break the power of the past by living for the future. We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning of the past. There were things in Paul’s past that could have been weights to hold him back (1 Timothy 1:12-17), but they became inspirations to speed him ahead. The events did not change, but his understanding of them changed.
A good example of this principle is Joseph (Genesis 45:1-15). When he met his brothers the second time and revealed himself to them, he held no grudge against them. To be sure, they had mistreated him, but he saw the past from God’s point of view. As a result he was unable to hold anything against his brothers. Joseph knew that God had a plan for his life, a race for him to run, and in fulfilling that plan and looking ahead, he broke the power of the past.
Too many Christians are shackled by regrets of the past. They are trying to run the race by looking backward! No wonder they stumble and fall and get in the way of other Christians! Some Christian runners are being distracted by the successes of the past, not the failures; and this is just as bad. That which “lies behind” must be set aside and that which “lies ahead” must take their place.
It is possible to have dissatisfaction, devotion, and direction, and still lose the race and the reward. However, there is a fourth essential.
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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