August 2, 2012
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, - Philippians 3: 13 (NLT)
Regret is the poison we drink while we wait for our past to magically change. It will slowly kill us while we sit waiting for something that can never happen. Regret is like chains around our ankles preventing us from walking into the future Christ has for us. That is how debilitating it can be. It is one of the more successful schemes of the enemy beloved. To have us so wrapped up in our past that we never live in the present and cannot possibly see our future. We all know people like this too if it is not ourselves. People who are free in Christ, except for that thing that happened when they were 15; or 20. But now they are 40. They have given decades to lamenting their past only to be right where they were when they started lamenting. Because the great big secret of regret is that in the end it can change nothing.
That is right beloved. Whatever it is that you might regret, there is nothing you can do to change it because it is in the past. Our past is already written but our future lies ahead. Let us take a look at the lives of the two most influential Apostles -- Paul and Peter. The Apostle Paul was originally the Pharisee Saul. To say he persecuted the church is to put it mildly. He actually presided over the deaths of many Christians including the stoning of the first martyr, Stephen. God however would save Saul and he would be transformed into the Apostle Paul. Do you think Paul had some serious regrets? Do you think it would have been easy for him to pack it in and just wallow in all the wrong decisions he had made? What if he had done that? God still had three missionary journeys for him to make. He would evangelize the entire known world and write what would become three quarters of the New Testament. Read through the Book of Acts and see all the people he touched, churches he planted, and the lives he changed. None of that would have occurred if Paul had allowed regret to rule his life.
The Apostle Peter had plenty to regret too didn't he? Failing Jesus on the water when he took his eyes off of Him. Rebuking Jesus to the point where he was called Satan. Bragging about how he would never abandon Christ only to deny even knowing Him three times including calling curses down upon himself should he be lying. If Peter was so inclined he could have returned to his fishing boat and spent his remaining years wishing he had it all over to do again. Yet if he had done that, who would have given the first sermon of the new church on the Day of Pentecost, which saw 3000 people saved to Christ? Peter would continue to start the church, which exists to this day. Thousands of years and countless people touched and saved through the efforts that all started with the work Peter was able to do. There was nothing Peter could have done about what he had already happened. All he could do was learn from it and move on. There was nothing Paul could have done either. He always remembered because remembering how far down God had to go to save you is crucial for maintaining humility but he did not allow regret from his past affect is duties in the present.
This brings us to the key verse for today, written by the Apostle Paul. In this section of his letter to the Church at Philippi, Paul is speaking about how he has not yet attained the perfection for which Christ had taken hold of his life. It is interesting that he tells us the one thing that he does in pursuit of Christ -- "Forgetting the past and looking forward to the future." We will deal with these separately although they are obviously intertwined. First of all, Paul is not suggesting that we forget the past ever happened. We see from the key verse he is talking about what he chooses to focus on. We should always learn from every experience no matter how positive or negative. Learning from experience however does not mean we have to focus on it as we live our lives. We all have things in our past we would like another chance to do over. We all regret decisions, relationships, and events. We all have this in common as well as the fact that there is nothing we can do about what is already done. In another letter, Paul speaks about a thorn in his flesh that tormented him. Many speculate it was a physical ailment of some kind but I think that he was tormented by the memories of standing over Stephen as rocks and bricks crushed his body and took his life. But every time he asked God to take it away, the answer was the same:
Each time he said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. -- 2Corinthians 12: 9 (NLT)
Grace is the unmerited favor of God. The truth we need to accept today when we are born again is that we do not need a do-over on our past. All we need is His grace -- which He gives us freely. We cannot earn it and we do not deserve it. Accept His grace, accept your past, learn from it and move on into the future God has for you.
It is not enough however to be able to move past our regrets. It is an important first step. The next step however is in embracing the future. Paul does not just forget what is behind but he looks forward to what lies ahead. The NIV says that he "strains" towards what is ahead. It is an action verb. We have too many passive verb Christians. We sometimes get into the bad habit of waiting for God to do something. We need to strain towards our future better. We need to come to church expecting to encounter God. We need to read our Bible expecting God to speak. We need to pray to God expecting Him to answer. Remember, God has things He has set aside for YOU to do specifically:
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. -- Ephesians 2: 10 (NIV)
But we cannot work in our present if we are living in our past. We cannot catch a glimpse of the glorious future God has in store for us if we are not straining towards it. There are only two choices when it comes to your past. It can slowly poison you as you live in the land of regret or it can be your teacher, spring-boarding you into the future God has already laid out for you. Accept His free gift of grace today and focus on straining towards tomorrow.
Rev. Anthony
