Moving Forward.

Philippians 3:13 says, “I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead”. 

The word used in our verse today for forget is Strongs G1950 and it means to neglect or no longer care for. Paul had a checkered past. He used to go around killing Christians and now he was trying to preach the same gospel he persecuted others for. That could not have been easy. Sometimes we look at Bible characters as though they possessed super human powers but they did not.

Paul however, tells us his secret to moving forward with Christ. Forgetting all of the past and fastening his heart to the future. There is nothing passive about forgetting the past I will tell you that. Sometimes, we wait for our past to magically disappear. However, God will not re-write our history. It happened. It is there, it is part of the story. We must accept it, repent if we need to and move on. We choose to forget it because God has forgotten it. We choose to let go of our past because God is not there anymore. He is in our present and our future.

So the key to winning in life is fixing our hearts not on what is behind us but on what is in front of us. We are ineffective when we are weighed down by our past. May we learn not to depend on our own strength but to lean on Jesus as we forget our past and fix our hearts to the future. It does matter what we focus on and God wants us focused on what is ahead so we can move forward with Him.

Love and Blessings,

Mel.