Forget The Past Phil. 3:13 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
Forgetting those things which are behind …, forgetting the past. Paul could live today and not dwell on the past mistakes. In Matt. 27:35-38 the Lord hung between two thieves, and I believe that every Christian hang between two thieves today. The thief of tomorrow, and the thief of yesterday. They often steal and discourage the accomplishments of today. Paul said to forget those things behind. Let’s look at a few things that we should forget.
Forget all past Guilt [1 Cor. 15:9-10]
- Persecuted the church of God – [Acts 8:1-3]
- By the Grace of God – All of us have a great debt due to God for His grace
- Bestowed upon him not in vain – By God’s grace his had victory over his mistakes.
- Paul was able to forget his past guilt and get something done for God!!!
- How many of us continue to feel the guilt of past mistakes and are hindered in the things that God may have for us to accomplish?
- Once you have repented and confessed your sin, it’s forgiven and forgotten, cleansed [1 Jn.1:9]
- Guilt over todays sins is a great thing and should be dealt with and forgotten.
Forget all past Grief [2 Sam. 12:15-23]
- The pain of mind produced by loss, misfortune, or injury
- Loss of a friend, or loved one
- When incur a loss or consider ourselves injured
- David is in a process of grief while the child is still alive, but when the child dies he moves on, he didn’t dwell on it.
- Five stages of Grief:
- Denial – shock, you can’t believe it happened
- Anger – you can get mad at the one you lost or even God
- Bargaining – The “what if” stage
- Depression – all attention moves to the present, How am I going to get by?
- Acceptance – Not that all is well, but that you have accepted the fact that you have a new normal.
- You may experience all or some, or even more than one at a time.
- But You must reach a point that you have forgotten your past grief.
Forget all past Grudges [Eph.4:31-32]
- You must forgive AND forget!!!
- Very dangerous Progression:
- Bitterness – inside/ unseen
- Wrath – inside, you are mad about it
- Anger – Now it starts to show on the outside
- Clamor – Raised voices
- Evil speaking – say bad things, in the beginning to others
- Malice – gets physical
- When you don’t forgive and forget, bitterness sets in and it is poison, to you not them.
- Unforgiveness is really hypocrisy, you can feel or do anything you please, but they can’t.
- Be thankful that Jesus doesn’t hold grudges!!!
Forget all past Glories [Job 29:1-25 with 30:1]
- The sin of presumption, presuming God’s grace, mercy, and provisions
- Live in the moment, God can change your world in the blink of an eye, and your trust and obedience should never change.
- If the Lord took it all away from you, as he did with Job, would you be able to react like Job? [Job 1:20-22] Now that’s a high calling!!!!
Back to [Phil.3:13-14]
To forget all past guilt, grief, grudges and Glories is the only way that you can press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.