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It is usually during this time of year that we tend to look back at the previous year or years.
We reflect on our accomplishments and sometimes we linger on our failures.
There might have been personal trials that you faced or maybe your plans did not come to fulfilment.
Maybe you did things that you are not particular proud of.
Or maybe you made some enemies or are fighting with someone.
Everyone has a different life and therefore a different set of challenges and victories.
What do you see looking back at 2022?
Do you see victories or do you see failures or maybe both?
Do you sometimes find yourself lingering on the past?
Now Paul writes to the church in Philippi and he speaks to them about the past.
Let’s read what he wrote in: Philippians 3:12-14
Let’s Pray
WE SHOULD FORGET THE THINGS IN THE PAST
We read in verse 13, where Paul says the following:
“forgetting those things which are behind”
When Paul speaks of things behind us, he is speaking of the past.
As an example, when you ride in your car and you look in your rear view mirror, what do you see?
Do you see things on your journey that are yet to come?
No!
You see things that are in the past.
So Paul is saying here that we should forget the things in the past.
Now that, in itself, is a very bold and usually extremely difficult statement.
It is usually next to impossible to “forget” our past.
Let me tell you my view.
I do not believe that the idea Paul makes here is one of total disremembering.
I believe that what he wants to inform us of here is that we should not allow any past reference to interfere with us obtaining the ultimate prize.
As you read Paul’s letters you will find that he likes to allude about running a race and finishing the race, in a spiritual sense.
Here, in today’s scripture, it is not different.
He refers here to the Grecian races.
Now in that race you would run to secure the prize.
You would not stop to look behind you to see how far you have run.
You would not look behind you to see how many competitors you are beating.
You would not look behind you to see how many obstacles you overcame.
You would concentrate on obtaining the prize and use every effort in order to obtain it.
You will focus on the future.
If your attention was diverted for a moment it could hinder you in obtaining the prize and can even aid in you losing your crown.
You can, for example, not see the obstacle in front of you, because your focus was at the obstacle behind you, which you already overcame.
And then you fall at that obstacle, doing the same next time or having injured yourself so much that you have to wait to recover before you can continue.
We can therefore reason that:
OUR PAST FAILURES CAN BE A GREAT STUMBLING BLOCK TO REACHING OUR DESTINATION
You see many people today are in bondage to their past failures.
They are so much in bondage that they are incapable of taking the steps to try again.
Many believers can be positioned into this scenario.
They allow their past experiences, their past failures, to control their future.
I heard this story of a guy in his 60s.
He had a driver’s license but he never wanted to drive a car.
When he was asked why, he said that, when he was 18 he got behind the wheel of a car and he made a terrible accident.
No one got hurt, but that incident, that failure, shaped his future.
He refused to drive a car again because of fear, because of his past.
If he wants to go places he needs to ask for a lift.
He has to depend on others to get him to places.
If he would just take the past failure and keep it in the past, he could go forward and get behind the wheel of a car and become independent with regards to his transport.
But it is up to him as it is up to you.
You have to decide whether you want to stay in the past or reach out to the future.
I don’t care what failures you had in your past.
I don’t care if you failed spiritually or in your ministry or in your work life or in your personal life or in your marriage…
What matters is whether you take your past failures & stumbling blocks and allow it to hinder your future, or do you take it to form your future?
Let me give you an example.
Imagine you drive your car and all of a sudden you go full speed over a bump in the road.
Has anyone ever driven a car full speed over a high bump in the road?
You know what I’m talking about.
You made a mistake.
Your head hits the roof.
You sometimes even damage your car.
Then you look in your rear view mirror and you see the bump.
You turn around to go and see what this bump looks like.
What was this all about?
Then you are on your way again.
However, every time you move towards your destination you look back in your rear view mirror and you see the bump in the road again and you turn around to look at it, again…
This happens continuously…
What do you think will happen?
You will never be able to reach your destination.
You will be stuck at that place on your journey.
But what will happen if you use this bump in the road to form your future.
You would be more observant in the future, making sure that you do not go full speed over a bump again.
You will know how to go over the bump.
It is the same with our failures.
When you fail you do not have to go back to that failure again.
You learn from it and remember how to get over it in the future.
And you will be able to reach your destination safer as well.
It just makes sense.
Your past failures can keep you from reaching your destination.
Thomas Edison tried 900 times before he succeeded in getting the electric bulb to work.
What would have happened if he stopped at failure number 1 or number 2 or number 500 or number 899 and pondered at those failures, unable to continue?
He would never have been able to be successful in his future.
He said himself that he did not fail 900 times; he just found 900 ways not to do it.
Do not see your failures as failures, just learn from them and see them as ways not to do it.
Another thing we need to be wary of is that:
PAST SINS CAN KEEP US IN BONDAGE
When Paul wrote the words: "Forgetting those things which are behind...", I am sure that he not only reflected on past failures and obstacles, but also his past sin.
Paul was one of the leaders who persecuted the church.
He was one of the men that spearheaded the persecution on Christianity.
He was there when Stephan was stoned to death.
In fact, he was on his way to persecute the Christians when he met the Messiah face to face on the road to Damascus.
It was then that he realised that he was wrong.
But the thing is he did do a lot of wrong things.
He sinned a lot.
That, I am sure, troubled him at times.
But there came a time when he confessed; there came a time when he repented; there came a time when he found forgiveness.
We read the following in:
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