Looking Back, Moving Forward...

The problem most people have in living the Christian life, is always looking back. When you live looking backwards, you’re guaranteed to stumble moving forward. I tend to do this. There are times when holding on to the past keeps me from fully committing to something moving forward. It’s until I let go of the past, that I start making larger strides moving forward. I think this is paramount for anyone stuck in a rut. As the apostle Paul said, “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:13-14). Letting go of the past, your shame and guilt (the things that Satan used to distract, deceive, and disrupt our lives), frees us up to focus on what’s ahead. A clear vision prevents stumbling on a rough road. Looking back only guarantees us to stumble. The only reason the past has importance is to remind us of where we came from, and Who rescued us and changed us forever. The difference is this: remembering the past is vastly different from continuing to live in it.

36 Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.37 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins.38 New wine must be stored in new wineskins.39 But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.” Luke 5:36-39