There’s never been success without doing something right and there’s never been failure without trying to do something right.
Sometimes, being able to forget about a previous failure is the biggest roadblock to achieving success. The nagging guilt and shame of losing… of not being quite good enough, is enough to keep down even the most strong-willed people.
Which brings me to today’s Tiny Words Bible verse.
“Forgetting what is behind…”
If you’re like me, those four words cause me to stumble over and over again. It’s not because it’s a complex thought. In fact, the words are very simple and easy to understand.
To “forget” means to vanish from our memory. Wouldn’t that be nice… Unfortunately, making something vanish is easier said than done.
So, how do we do it? Well, the first thing you’ve got to do is to make sure that you no longer “own” the memory. If you can’t do that, it’ll never disappear. It’ll always hang out in the crevices of your guilt and shame, deep within your brain. After all, that’s what our human brain does. It holds onto stuff (it does this better the younger you are 🙂 )
To no longer “own it” means you have to get rid of it. Does that mean you can drive down the road and pull off beside a thick patch of woods and heave it into the brush? Or maybe go out on a boat into the middle of an ocean and cast it overboard?
No, none of that will work.
We have to “give it away”.
What? How do we do that? Who will take the things I so desperately want to get rid of?
In today’s Tiny Words Bible verse, Paul is writing to the church in Philippi. As he’s writing, he’s chained up and in prison, soon to be executed. When he uses the phrase “Forgetting what is behind”, he’s telling us that he has already “given” his away. And to who, you might ask…
God sent Jesus Christ into the world to be the recipient of all the things we need to “give away”. Our sins, in all their hurtful and shameful forms, can be cast on Him and He will receive them. When you’ve done that, you’re washed clean in His blood and your sin has been cast as “far as the east is from the west”. That means it’s forgotten.
So, don’t carry all that garbage with you. Give it to Jesus. He’s ready to receive it and His arms are open and waiting for you.
Call on Him. Say His name. Jesus.
Philippians 3 : 13 – 14
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.