Let Bygones Be Bygones- And Move Forward with God

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 3:13b-14, NLT

“You can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.”

- Michael McMillian

We all have a past.

But more importantly, we all have a future.

The one we focus on largely determines the outcome of our life.

Paul was a man with a storied past. By his own testimony, he was a hater of Jesus Christ and His followers. He did his level best (worst?) to obliterate any trace of the Way. He made it his vigorous, determined mission in life to hunt down, arrest, jail, torture, and murder Jesus’ followers. Paul was a bad man doing really terrible things.

That was Paul before his dramatic conversion, a total transformation that took place in a whirlwind of dust and Light and a vivid dialogue with the very Son of God.

After that day, Paul was never the same. Oh, yes, he still had an ugly past; however, by the almighty grace of God, Paul left that benighted history on a street named Straight and launched into a ministry of evangelism for Jesus that changed the world.

That’s why Paul could emphatically write that he had left his past behind to eagerly press into whatever God had for him in the future, both immediate and eternal.

Paul’s declaration brings to mind one of my favorite quotes from Oswald Chambers, “Let the past sleep, but let it sleep in Christ. Leave the irreparable past in his hands and step into the irresistible future with him.” (My Utmost, Dec 31)

Yes, we all have a regrettable past, but the very best news is that it’s fully redeemed in the Cross of Jesus. As surely as Jesus chose Paul—flaws and all—to be His ambassador of the Gospel, He has chosen us to be his present-day ambassadors by letting “bygones be bygones” as we step into the irresistible future with Him.

The past may be a good place to visit occasionally, but it’s no place to live. So, let’s stop “re-reading” what was, and let’s begin writing new and better chapters as we follow the Spirit of God in anticipation of the many wonderful things to come.

God will lead us there if we will follow.

Let’s GO!

A fellow beggar along the way,

Greg