10-27-2023

Good Morning All,

        Philippians 3:13; “Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.”

     “It is hard to drive forward if you are always looking backwards.”  I have heard that said once in a while.  I tend to look in the rearview mirrors quite frequently.  I am not sure why; I look for things coming up behind, I look at what I just went past.  The only thing I know for sure is that if I look in the rearview mirror too much, I tend to be veering all over and I miss what there is to see that is ahead of me.

    This is what Paul is telling us in our verse; to look ahead and not behind.  This is a very common theme for Paul.  Paul continually tells his readers, and us, “You are better than that because you are different.”  “Stop going back to the old sinful ways that Christ has taken you away from.”  Essentially, Paul is saying don’t look back.  Stop looking back at what you were.  Stop letting what you were hold you down.  Focus on who you are, a redeemed child of God.  Focus on who you will be; part of the perfected creation celebrating with Christ when he returns to conquer the final enemy which is death.

    Stop looking back at what you were.  Stop looking back on the sins that were there.  Repent and receive God’s mercy to go forward; to strain forward to the restored creation.  If you know of someone who you hurt through your sin, repent, apologize, rectify, if possible, but then move forward.  Strain forward to be the redeemed child that God wants you to be.  Stop looking and going back.  Stop longing for the “old days;” they were only filled with pain and self-destruction. 

    The devil really wants you to focus on the past, to focus on what is in the rearview mirror.  He wants you to see your failures and he wants you to think that is where you belong.  Yet God, through Jesus, released us from the past and he gives us something to focus on and that is the perfect eternal life which we are now a part of.  Because of Jesus’ resurrection, death has been defeated, it does not own us anymore.  Because of Christ, we only have to look forward to the final redemption when all will bow down before Jesus, and we will live in eternity with him. 

    So, as you go on your journey of life, don’t look back.  Keep focused on what is ahead.  For ahead of us is more and more of God’s blessings.  What is ahead are the plans that God has to prosper us.  What lies ahead is God’s loving arms.  We sure don’t want to miss this, and we don’t want to look away from this.  Our future, our hope is secured.  Keep straining ahead for the wonderful prize, eternal life.  Don’t look back, there is nothing to see there.

Gracious Lord, in you we find our destiny.  In you we find our hope for all the blessings which you bestow upon us.  Guide us with your mighty hand.  Keep us secure in the knowledge of your saving mercy.  Be with those who seem lost in the past.  Send your Spirit to bring them safely home, in the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret