“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [heavenly] prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

PHILIPPIANS 3:13 – 14 AMP

For every one of us, irrespective of age and achievements, there’s always something great ahead for us. God has great and beautiful plans for every man at creation. The challenge for most of us is that we keep looking back forgetting that looking back slows our progress and can ultimately hinder us from seeing and reaching what lies ahead. We can’t do the two at the same time, it is either we look back and stay back or look ahead and move forward. We are constantly moving in the direction of our focus. 

Don’t let your past experiences, past hurts, past glories, past guilt, past failures, past heart breaks, absorb your attention and delay or hinder your progress. No! Don’t! Trust God to handle it and refuse to hold on to it, there’s a bright and promising future ahead of you.

When we keep thinking and talking about the past, we unwittingly allow our past events and experiences to control us and we lose out on God’s blessings for us. When we focus on what the devil is doing we lose sight of what God is doing.

Our focus should be on God and the goal He has for us in Christ Jesus. We can’t focus our minds on Jesus and all what He has for us while we’re still focusing on our pasts. We have to lay aside our past successes and failures to possess our futures.

What is God’s assignment for you? Is it ministry, fashion, sport, music, business, parenting, IT, reaching out to the needy? In whatever capacity we operate, the core assignment for every one of us is to be a witness for Christ and to make disciples of all nation.

We need to forget the past and keep pressing on to complete God’s assignment for our lives. Press on, get to the finish line and enter the presence of Jesus, a celebrity.

Recommended text for further reading:

Hebrews 12:1-3; Isaiah 43:18-19; 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27.