“I waited patiently for the Lord's help; then he listened to
me and heard my cry. He pulled me out of a dangerous pit, out of the deadly
quicksand. He set me safely on a rock and made me secure.” (Psalm 40:1-2)
The beginning verses of Psalm 40 remind me of a Fall Saturday, when I was playing in the marching band at college, it was raining buckets and had been for hours. We were lined up on the sidelines of a football field, waiting to start our part of the half-time show. The soaking rain had created a mucky mess of the field. The band director blew his whistle, and we took our first few steps. The disconcerting sound of the mud sucking at our white bucks accompanied our music. Many pairs of shoes were ruined that day. In a particularly mirey area, my friend lost one of hers. She never looked back but trudged on in her sock! We were all glad to leave that muddy mess behind and get up into the bleachers.
In Philippians 3:13 Paul talks about leaving the past behind. “One thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead.” While those words are often used as a reminder that we can’t rely on past accomplishments, couldn’t it also apply to failures and sins that bog us down?
The book of Acts records many actions Paul took against Christians before he became a believer himself and tells of his regret and repentance over those behaviors. He certainly wouldn’t want to remain mired in them to the detriment of any future good he could do.
And yet, that is exactly what we often do—we keep remembering past sins—failures and shortcomings—allowing guilt to plague us and make us ineffective in the present. We feel unworthy of God’s and other’s forgiveness, unworthy of being trusted to take on a task for Christ, all because we keep looking back.
That’s not what God wants. God promises to forgive us when we confess our sins. (1 John 1:9) He promises to remember them no more. (Hebrews 8:12) God wants us to forget the past (Isaiah 43:18)
God offers us grace—grace greater than all our sin. Let’s accept it and move on!
Be encouraged!
