"Brothers and sisters, I know that I have not yet reached that goal, but there is one thing I always do. Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above.
All of us who are spiritually mature should think this way, too. And if there are things you do not agree with, God will make them clear to you."---Philippians 3:13-15 (NCV)
"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."---Lesley P. Hartley
Recently, I received some news about someone in my past that left me shocked, hurt, a bit angry and a little bitter. Now, by no means am I saying that this is a good thing, but the Bible does say that confession is good for the soul (relatively speaking---James 5:16)and besides, God never said that I couldn't feel these emotions (Psalm 4:4); I just shouldn't let them consume me. (Proverbs 12:25)
In all honesty (John 8:32), I really should have seen it coming. The Amplified Version of Hebrews 12:15 tells us that we should exercise foresight and just a few days ago, I posted a blog on X3Church.com about an experience at I had at the Nashville airport (xxxchurch.com/blogs/women/baggageclaim.html). Long story short, because I carried so much baggage---baggage that I ended up not even using, by the way---I had to pay twenty-five extra dollars (times 2) for the extra pounds. Yes, baggage will indeed cost you and when it comes to my life and how God communicates with me, he will often send a tangible lesson in preparation for an emotional/spiritual one.
If there is one word that I could use to describe what went through my mind after hearing about what happened with this "past person", it would have to be "duped". And, for the past week, I can complete relate to David when he said, "My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness." (Psalm 38:5) A man by the name of David Russell once said that the hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn. I think I have mentioned before that one way to determine this is by deciding if there is something on the other side of the bridge to go back to.
Oh, but discerning this can be such an excruciating process can't it? After all, one definition of "bridge" is "a transitional passage connecting two subjects or movements". Well, if it's a transitional passage, shouldn't there be grace allotted for transitions? Some. If they are beneficial:
"Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others-ignoring God!-harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefitof all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith."---Galatians 6:7-10 (Message)
Benefit of all. I wonder why when we read scriptures like these that we don't take ourselves into consideration. It doesn't say that we should work to the benefit of everyone but ourselves. It says that labor should be for the benefit of EVERYONE. Yet, I can't tell you how many times I have broken my neck (or heart) to meet the need of someone, who, for all intense purposes, could really care less about the sacrifice that was made.
Oh, if I had only listened to the Father first...so many times. If only I had asked him what he thought (Jeremiah 33:3) instead of telling him what I think he should say and then assume he was in agreement because he didn't strike me down on the spot. (That's really what grace is for!) If I had, I would have realized that more times than not, I sacrifice more than I ought to (I Samuel 15:22) and even when I am called to do so, it is supposed to be sacrifices based in righteousness (Psalm 4:5). When you do something with righteousness as your motivation, God can step in and protect you (Proverbs 10:2, 11:5, 6 &8). Trust me, you can't make that call on your own. We have all sinned. We all fall short. (Romans 3:23) To know if you are doing something that is "morally upright; without guilt or sin", you would need to consult God before, not after, you take action.
In this case, I didn't and so now I am suffering for it. It's not something that I'm proud of, either. Family, as much as we may want to romanticize the notion, blessings do not come when we suffer out of flesh (doing anything outside of God's will and/or timing). CONSEQUENCES DO. Only when we suffer for righteousness' sake are we truly blessed. (I Peter 3:14) We have to get to a place where we stop believing that it is to a noble thing to be a martyr for sin, for selfishness, for fear, for our time table and the way we want things in life to go. Now, I'll be the first to say that God can/does/will heal the brokenhearted (Psalm 147:3), but the real truth is that he can/does/will prevent us from having one in the first place (Ecclesiastes 8:5) if we stop moving ahead of his timing (Acts 1:7---Message) and instruction (Proverbs 16:9).
As I sat and really focused on all that I heard (all the while trying to figure out how I can let this person "have it" without losing my witness), the Holy Spirit beat me to it:
Shellie, you are always more concerned with yesterday and tomorrow than today. The past is done and the future is God's. Let them both go.
I know, right?
The Message Version of Proverbs 25:28 states, "A person without self-control is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out." In other words, without self-control, we are left vulnerable to just about anything. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and since he dwells within us (I Corinthians 6:19), this means that it should be ever-present in the body of every believer (Hebrews 11:6). But, self-control is not just about not sleeping around or bouncing a check. As mature followers of Christ, we also need to control the ability to not want to handle things that are, well, out of our control! WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING GOD'S BEST, THE PAST AND THE FUTURE (other than our decision to submit them both to the Father) ARE OUT OF OUR CONTROL!
Oh, believe me, I know the scriptures. I know that King Solomon in all of his wisdom warned me not to worry about tomorrow because I am not even sure how today will end up (Proverbs 27:1). I know that Christ forewarned that today will put enough on my plate (Matthew 6:34) and that God cares enough about my present, my now, to meet every need (Luke 12:28). I know that there's a real arrogance in thinking/believing/acting otherwise:
"Doom to you! You pretend to have the inside track. You shut God out and work behind the scenes, plotting the future as if you knew everything, acting mysterious, never showing your hand. You have everything backward! You treat the potter as a lump of clay. Does a book say to its author, 'He didn't write a word of me?' Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it, 'She had nothing to do with this?'"---Isaiah 29:15-16 (Message)
I know all of this and yet, I can tell that as much as I may preach about faith, it is not one of my strong suits (yet). If I were really developed in that area then I would know that I should chill out and really and totally let God handle things. I mean, if he says that he will withhold no good from me (Psalm 84:11), then it's not my job to kill myself to make that good happen. It's simply my job to be good ground for him to plant blessings into.
One way of doing that is releasing my past. But, how do I do that? I have been holding on to so many areas of it for so long. One of my friends (a male friend) nipped it in the bud the other day by saying, "Quit letting people occupy your heart space rent free. Nobody is gonna just pack up and leave when you let them live there without any responsibility. Evict them!" (Gotta love the conciseness of men.)
Oh, but that can be so much easier said than done, can't it? No, if I'm really gonna get past it, then I need to understand just what that entails. The first thing that Holy Spirit did was lead me to the definition of "past":
Past: gone by or elapsed in time; of, having existed in, or having occurred during a time previous to the present; bygone; gone by just before the present time; just passed; having formerly been or served as; previous; earlier; the history of a person, nation, etc.; what has existed or has happened at some earlier time; an earlier period of a person's life, career, etc., that is thought to be of a shameful or embarrassing nature; no longer current; ago.
Now, go look up the promises in the Bible about the past.
Don't you know that I looked and looked and couldn't find a single one! (If you do, let me know.) There was not one thing that assured me that by living in the past, I would have a brighter present or future. I did find a reminder that in the past, present and future, Christ remains the same (Hebrews 13:8), but to me, as it relates to this message, that basically means that yesterday I was supposed to be concerned with only that day and when tomorrow comes, that will also be the expectation.
So, being that there are no real perks to past living, why is it so tempting to do?
I won't speak for you, but for me, I realize that the past can be a crutch because I've already seen it. Living in the past doesn't require any real level of faith (Hebrews 11:1). The future can be a crutch as well because it's easier to fantasize when I look ahead (Ecclesiastes 7:18---Message); about the money I will make, someday; the husband and children I will have, someday; the best-seller that I will write---someday.
Oh, but when I deal with the present, that means I have to focus on the article deadlines I have TODAY; the bills I must pay TODAY; keeping the promises that I made (and must keep) TODAY. Living in the now is what keeps a person accountable and responsible. It's what proves if they are past their past and preparing for their future.
There is another thing I have realized about the past, too.
I have to admit that although I have heard and recited that lead scripture for today many times, I never really got the "forgetting" part.
When it comes to moving forward, the New Century Version translates Philippians 3:13-15 as, "Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above."
The Amplified Version: "...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward."
The Message: "I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. So let's keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us."
In all of these---along with the NKJV and NIV---the commonality is "forgetting" or "not turning back". In this context, to forget means to "to cease or fail to remember"; "be unable to recall"; "neglect to take"; "to fail to think of"; "take no note of"; "to cease or omit to think of something".
Now, take a moment (or two or ten) to think about your past. If you could break it down into a spiritual pie chart, how much of it is positive (beneficial) and how much of it is negative (counterproductive)? According to the Word, this is how we are called to think:
"For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, thinkon and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them]."---Philippians 4:8 (AMP)
The things that are in your past that are true,worthy of reverence, honorable, just, pure, lovely AND LOVEABLE (whew!), kind, winsome and gracious (did you peep that there is no "or" in there, which means these memories should contain an element of ALL of these things?), then those are good memories to hold on to, but anything else? WE NEED TO FORGET THEM.
If it existed at any earlier time but it wasn't true, worthy of reverence, honorable, just, pure, lovely and lovable, kind, winsome and gracious, we need to forget it.
If it was a part of someone's history (including our own) and it wasn't true, worthy of reverence, honorable, just, pure, lovely and lovable, kind, winsome and gracious, we need to forget it.
If it was shameful or embarrassing and it wasn't true,worthy of reverence, honorable, just, pure, lovely and lovable, kind, winsome and gracious, we need to forget it.
If it happened at any earlier time and it wasn't true,worthy of reverence, honorable, just, pure, lovely and lovable, kind, winsome and gracious, we need to forget it.
So, does that mean we need to forget everything? How do we do that and stay discerning? I'm glad you asked. Catch one other definition of the word, "forget": If it is NO LONGER CURRENT, in other words, if the past isn't in the present, then we need to forget it.
Now, no one said that forgetting was easy. As a matter of fact, based on the definitions of the word, it takes a conscious and concerted amount of effort to do it (another reason why we need self-control), but in order to get to the goal(s) and prizes(s) that God has for us, it is necessary. For us to be made in the image of a spirit (Genesis 1:26,27) that can throw our transgressions as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), you can best believe that we have the ability within us to not only forgive/release those in our past who have hurt us (including what we have done to others as well as to ourselves), but also leave it there so that we can get to what God has for you. Something that I think we fail to remember is that when we fail to forget something that is not helping us, it causes us to be preoccupied. Now catch what the definitions of "preoccupy" are:
Preoccupy: to absorb or engross to the exclusion of other things; to occupy beforehand or before others.
When you are preoccupied with something, it keeps other things from being in that space. Worse yet, when you are preoccupied with something, you often find yourself moving ahead of yourself! You tend to worry about what will happen instead of concerning yourself with what is. To be preoccupied is to be "consumed", "engrossed" to the point that it monopolizes your time, your emotions, your actions and if you let it go too far, your esteem. Nothing good can ever come of that. What I am coming to see (and accept) is that when I choose not to forget non-beneficial things, it's a weight that holds me back, not just for what I desire, but from what God has already planned out for me.
I am forever quoting how much I love Ephesians 3:20 ("Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us..."), but do you know what the light bulb moment was for me today? Based on a lot of what I have been thinking, God topping it would not require much. If all I am thinking about is what happened to me, what someone did to me, what someone said to me or even what I did or said to/about myself, then God exceeding those thoughts doesn't take much effort on his part. Here I am serving a God who created the earth in seven days and, based on my thought patterns lately, all I am expecting him to do is keep me out of jail for not knocking someone out? Wow! What low expectations I must have of him and of the power he has given me through him and his son (2 Timothy 1:7, Philippians 4:13).
Oh, but no more. Today, I am going to do something radical. I am going to actually live for today. If I'm going to "remember" anything, it will be the works of the Lord (Psalm 77:11) and the positive things that brought me to this point. If I'm going to keep a bridge it will be so good can move over to better. I'm not going to give my past any more power by holding on to things that couldn't change even if I wanted them to or by stressing out over things that I can't manifest without God's approval andassistance. Since he said that he will withhold nothing good from me, if something from my past is meant for me, then I will let him handle it.
In the meantime, I'm gonna sit back and think about the things that are TRUE (we will have to deal with that another time...when it comes to our past, some of us can't handle the truth!), worthy of reverence, honorable, just, pure, lovely and lovable, kind and winsome and gracious---what is based in virtue in excellence. After all, the best way to leave yesterday behind you is to get past it, and the best way to do that is to embrace the gift of the present trusting that what I need to know, God will make clear. In his time. In his way. In preparation for the future...which is also his.
©Shellie R. Warren/2008
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