With the beginning of the New Year two things always crop up in my mind and that is the past and the future. There are two ways that I tend to look at the past. It is either with regret for the things I’ve done wrong or with fondness over the happy memories. I am a journaler so I’ve been taking a look back through this past year. It flew by! I’ve had a lot of ups and downs this last year. But really the Lord took care of me and brought me through it. He also brought a verse to mind as I reviewed this last year.

That verse is Philippians 3:13: “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,” (English Standard Version).

Forgetting what lies behind. That is something powerful. As I looked into this verse I’ve seen many arguments of the sort that “Our actions define who we are so shouldn’t we hold onto the past?” I feel as though it is more of a letting go of the past so we don’t regret, fret or worry over what we’ve done wrong because it is covered by Christ’s blood.

I came across a metaphor about this. You can think of yourself like a piece of paper. All your sins (before repentance) are written on you. Then you are washed in Christ’s blood. What happens? Does it change you from being a piece of paper? No but it does blot out all the writing that was on you. Even if we are to try and write another sin on the blood covered paper does it show up? No it too is covered by the blood.

The other reason that we are to forget the past is because we have something amazing to look forward to. That is the Second Coming of Christ. How are we to keep a watch for Christ’s return if we are busy holding onto the past.