But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13-14, NIV (1978)

Did you ever make a bad decision and then let it haunt you for the rest of your life? You know what I'm talking about - it's the thing that whenever you remember it, you wince at the very thought of what you have done. Maybe it was a youthful indiscretion, maybe it was something that you were fully old enough to know better than to do but you did it anyway, maybe it was even a situation in which you were sincerely trying to do the right thing, but it turned out the exact opposite.

Whatever the situation, even though it might have occurred many years ago, the mistake seems to be as fresh today as the day you made it. So, what's the solution? It is easy enough for someone to say you just need to stop thinking about it and get on with life, but we all know that there are some things that are just not that easy to forget. Impossible to forget might be a better way to phrase it. So, again, what is the solution? How can we put our mistakes and sins of the past behind us?

Maybe looking at the apostle Paul's situation would help. When he was living as a Pharisee and was known as Saul of Tarsus, Pual had done some very bad things, in fact, about the worst things that you could imagine: He had persecuted followers of Christ! And the persecutions were not on the mild side, either. He was instrumental in the stoning of God's prophet, Stephen. Some people he had arrested, others he had killed. He did everything he could to discourage people from following Christ, even to the point of trying to get them to deny their Lord and Savior. So obsessed was he that he was actually on the road to Damascus to find fresh Christians to prosecute. 

That's when Jesus appeared to Saul and showed him beyond a shadow of a doubt that He really was the Messiah.

That's when Saul changed his entire life. To his defense, he really did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, so he was sincere in his thinking that those who were following Christ were actually blasphemers who were living in opposition to God. Furthermore, he honestly believed that it was his duty before God to stop these followers of Jesus. But when Jesus appeared to him, everything changed. When confronted with irrefutable evidence that Jesus was the Son of God, Saul wasted no time in repenting. And, after having his sins washed away in baptism, Saul (who would later become known as the apostle Paul) immediately began to preach that Jesus was the Son of God and that salvation could be found only in Him.

Then Paul did something that is absolutely pertinent to the problem that so many of us struggle with. To be specific, he forgot the past and went on with his new mission, which was to testify to all that Jesus was the Son of God.

Now, when Paul states that he "forgot what lay behind", he did not imply at all that his memory was wiped clear of his past sins. In fact, he often spoke of his past sins to help people to see that they too could be forgiven of the things they had done. In I Timothy 1:15-16, he said the following: "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy to that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life."

From this we can clearly see that Paul remembered his past sins, so what did he mean when he wrote in Philippians that he had "forgot what lay behind"? I believe the answer is just this: He did not continually torture himself with memories of past mistakes; rather, he focused instead on his journey to heaven!

Herein lies the secret to allowing the past to remain in the past. It's not that we can ever forget some things - indeed, we should remember them if for no other reason than to use them to help us realize just how great Christ's love and God's forgiveness is. But it's like when we are traveling down the highway at 70 miles per hour: If we are continually looking over our shoulder at where we have been, it is going to be all the harder to keep our vehicle steered in the direction that we are wanting to go. So, just as Paul didn't have amnesia concerning his past, neither can we forget everything that we have done. However, we can realize that there is nothing we can do about the past, but there is everything we can do about the direction we are going. So, like Paul, we need to keep our eyes heavenward so that we can continue to press on to the goal.

Once we can learn to not continually beat ourselves up for the past mistakes that we can no longer hope to do anything about, we can then get on with the task that God has called us to: Making sure that we are pressing on to the goal and helping others to do the same. Then, we can enjoy the peace, hope and confidence that God desires for all of His dearly loved children to enjoy. Paul could stop thinking about the past, because he knew that God had forgiven him. We can do the same, if we will only trust God to forgive us of our past sins as well. After all, if Paul was the worst of sinners and he was still able to be forgiven, we too can enjoy that same gift. When we do, we will be able to relieve ourselves of that terrible burden of the mistakes and sins of the past in order that we can focus our attention on what God wants us to be doing right now.

Isn't God good!