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Christians’ goal, our goal, is to press on towards Christ-likeness.
In order to press on, we must forget what lies behind. We must not rest on past successes or let past sins haunt us. We thank God what whatever successes we’ve had. We must confess and repent of our past sins.
We must get with it.
Forgetting what lies behind can be harder than it sounds.
In Philippians, Paul enumerates the reasons he had to put confidence in the flesh, but then said that he was found in Christ because of Christ’s righteousness which is through faith in Him. He counted the past as loss, as rubbish. (Philippians 3)
I am much more apt to have trouble forgetting my sins.
I have to remind myself of two things.
One, when I came to saving faith, my sins were forgiven. And not only that, God put them behind His back, forgetting them, and doesn’t act on them. (See God Forgets Our* Sins.)
Two, I remind myself of God’s promise: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
We must forget what lies behind. We must not let anything in the past (good or bad) interfere with doing the good works God has for us to do (Ephesians 2:10)
Press on!
