Have you driven anywhere lately? How often did you use your rearview mirror? How much of your focus remained glued to the windshield? To be sure, your forward focus got you to the intended spot!
It’s completely nonsensical to imagine reaching our destination while focused on that tiny mirror that reveals only what is behind us. Even small children understand this concept . . . to get where we’re going, we must focus forward.
Yet how often do we fixate on what magnifies our past? Even if we don’t converse about those things behind us, we certainly internally rehearse them entirely too often. In fact, if truth be told, so much of the junk back there deeply impacts decisions right here. (You know it’s true!)
What is it, back there? Perhaps it’s a wound that still bleeds when bumped. Maybe it’s poor choices with bitter outcomes that haunt your living.
We all could dissect a myriad of situations and seasons we could have, should have handled differently. But folks . . . we will not get where we’re going by studying that rearview mirror. To fully live this gift called life, WE MUST SET OUR GAZE FORWARD!
It is NOT the plan of God to wallow in the misery of regret. It is NOT the plan of God to remain fixated on past pain that only puts you deeper in a pit of defeat.
The Apostle Paul knew a thing or two about regrets. He’s the guy who tried to murder Christians before he became one. This dude once hunted down believers in Jesus. Then he got hunted down for believing in Jesus. Talk about whiplash!
This man lived in deep regret for snuffing out beautiful lives that adored the LORD he came to adore.
Can you imagine the memories that tormented this man of God each evening as he closed his eyes to rest? When the room went dark, his mind followed suit. No matter how much he had gotten right, in that moment it never felt like enough to overwhelm what he had gotten so wrong. The night grew outrageously loud in his head. (Can anyone relate?)
But Paul finally made up his mind that all his energies, all his focus belonged to the race set before him. He determined to run with eyes forward toward Jesus and forget anything that lingered behind him. He realized that where God was taking him was so much bigger than where he had been.
Friend, WHERE GOD LONGS TO TAKE YOU IS SO MUCH BIGGER THAN WHERE YOU’VE BEEN!
So let us forget to remember the past. Yes, that’s what I said . . . forget to remember!
Stop rehearsing what’s behind you! The rehashing of that thing is a trap!
When Jesus is the LORD of our living, the Omniscient One who knows all things decides to forget our past. It’s time for us to forget it, too.
Determine daily to carry a short memory and a clear direction.
Choose to fix your eyes and fasten your heart to the future God has dreamed for you! It’s the only way out of your regret. It’s the only way forward!
