FORGETTING & REMEMBERING

Paul said in Philippians 3:13, 14, "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Paul saw the importance of forgetting, but, what did the apostle forget? You know he didn't forget his knowledge of the scriptures. He, certainly, didn't forget about God's amazing grace. By all means, he didn't forget about the things that happened to him on the road to Damascus, when he had an encounter with the Lord and was forever changed.

He forgot the bad things…the things that he could not change…the things that would hold him back from doing the Lord's work on earth. It's true, Paul never forgot that he had persecuted the church, but he found a way to put it in a place where it moved him forward and not backward. He used it to his advantage and not his disadvantage. He used it as a confirmation that what he was now teaching was the truth. He turned his greatest liability into his greatest asset.

It's human nature…we often remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember. The Hebrew writer, in 12:1 admonishes us to "…lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…" If there is something in our past that is holding us back from righteous living, then, we need to let it go.

Let's never forget God's will for us and the great promises He has made. We need never forget the sacrifice that Christ made for us, and that by that sacrifice we could be cleansed from our sins. We should always remember the day when we, like Paul, were forever changed.