THE POSSESSIVE PAST

“... this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before...I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

(Phil. 3:13-14)

Paul is not speaking of blotting out all past experiences from our memory, for he mentions the past, good and bad, in many of his letters, such as remembering the good deeds of some and the evil of others. The context shows he is speaking of things, both pleasant or unpleasant, that would keep us from going forward for Christ. 

I find the past has a long lariat that reaches all the way into the present, no matter how far one has traveled. It lassos us and drags us back to the time of our history. The glorious laurels we expected to see when we arrive, we find have withered; and the previous sins we enjoyed have become a miry, filthy cesspool. Nothing is the way it was or imagined!

The flesh tells us to camp out awhile in the past; the Spirit bids us to press on for God. The past is like concrete— if you don’t move, it will set up on you and you'll find yourself permanently settled in that position. It is then it will hold you like a vice, and all you think about, all your decisions, and all your enjoyment will be rooted in the dead past!  

As I have often instructed you, my readers, “Bury your past, then throw away the shovel.”

By An Old Disciple