Philippians 3:12-14 from the AMPLIFIED bible reads "Not that I have now attained this ideal, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of grasp and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus the Messiah has laid hold of me and made me His own. I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own yet: but one thing I do it is my one aspiration: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the supreme and heavenly prize to which god in Christ Jesus is calling us upward."
There are two things in this passage that we must take note of. 1. Forgetting those things which are behind. 2. Reaching forth unto those things which are before.
Before you can go on with God, you must forget about the past. Paul when he was still know as Saul of Tarsus, had to forget about his past as a persecutor of Christians in order to minister effectively.
1 Timothy 1:11-16 AMPLIFIED "As laid down by the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. I give thanks to Him Who has granted me the needed strength and made me able for this. Christ Jesus our Lord, because He has judged and counted me faithful and trustworty, appointing me to this stewardship of the ministry. Though I formerly blasphemed and persecuted and was shamefully and outrageoously and aggressively insulting to Him, nevertheless, I obtained mercy because I had acted out of ignorance in unbelief. and the grace unmerited favor and blessing of our Lord actually flowed out and superabundantly and beyond measure for me, accompanied by faith, and love that are to be realized in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and true and worthy of full and universal acceptance, tha Christ Jesus the Messiah came into the world to save sinners of whom I am foremost. But I obtained mercy for the reason that in me, as the foremost of sinners, Jesus Christ might show forth and display all His perfect longsuffering and patience for an example to encourage those who would thereafter believe on Him for the gaining of eternal life."
We also know that Saul was present at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58) and that Saul consented to Stephen's death. (Acts 8:1).
Acts 9:1, 2 tells us what the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write about Paul. Thank God, that God's mercy reached Paul! That is one thing he was talking about when he said, "forgetting those things which are behind . . .I press toward the mark."
If we are to be successful in our Christian life and ministry, there is one thing we must do--that's a lesson that Paul learned: WE MUST LEARN TO FORGET. If we don't learn this valuable lesson, we'll be handicapped the rest of our lives in our service to the Lord.
Remember the Lord Himself said in Isaiah and repeated it again in the New Testament: "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgression . . . and will not remember thy sins" (Isaiah 43:25). If God doesn't remember them (our sins), why should we? Think about that one.
Notice the next verse in Isaiah 43, (26), God said, "Put me in remembrance . . ." In other words, God is telling us to remind Him of what He said! Why? You need to remind Him and yourself, because when you enter into the presence of God to pray, the devil will bring all kinds of accusations agains tyou. He will bring your past before you as a photograph.
But that's all it is: JUST A PICTURE! It doesn't exist anymore!!! God said "I've blotted it out." IF He blotted it out, it doesn't exist!!! Praise God!!!
God didn't say He wouldn't remember your sins or iniquities for your sake (although you get the benefit of it); He siad it was for His sake Hel'll not remember your sins. Why? So He can bless you. So He can help you. So He can demonstrate His great mercy and love on your behalf.
Looking at Isaiah 43:26 even closer, we realize it is an invitation from God to come before Him and state your case. It's talking about prayer. A marginal note in some bibles says, "set forth your case." and you can do that only when you learn to forget.
Hebrews 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."
Paul had to forget his past in order to walk on with God and to stand in the full potential of the office and minstry God had called him to. Also associated with learning to forget is learning to forgive. This forgiveness is twofold: not only must you learn to forgive others, you also must learn to forgive yourself.
The Bible says to forgive 70 X 7. That comes to 490 times!!! That's not in a lifetime, that's each day.
Luke 17:3-5 "Take heed to yourselves: if they brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. and if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith."
Forgiveness is part of the "faith" message. It takes faith to forgive! In fact, your faith won't work unless you do forgive.
Mark 11:24 Jesus was talking about faith, but He goes on to talk about forgiveness in connection with prayer in verse 25.
Read Matthew 18:23-35. Why did he call him wicked? Because he wasn't willing to forgive! there no use in discussng what's more or less wicked. If it's wicked, we don't want to have anything to do with it.
That's plain enough isn't it? whether you realize it or not, to forgive and to forget go hand in hand. And these things hinder us from receiving from God, from growing spiritually, and from being who and what God wants us to be.
Another thing is folk tend not to forgive themselves. That is just as wrong as it is to hold unforgiveness toward someone else. You've got to take that first step. You can't press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ without forgetting the things that are behind.
Some have held on to that unforgiveness for so long that a root of bitterness has sprung up. We have to cut that root of bitterness out in the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus and the fire of God's Word. It will be a healthy, intelligent choice if you do so.
In Romans 12:1, 2 it talks about us presenting our bodies a living sacrifice to God. The Amplified Bible says it's an act of worship and a rational decision. Let's do it by faith so we can see a greater manifestion of God in our lives
