"Leave the Past in the Past"

“Leave the Past in the Past”

One of my daily prayer requests is for God to help me focus on the future rather than on the past. It’s easy to dwell on our struggles, misfortunes, betrayals by others and sins of days gone by but can our fretting ever change what’s already happened? Yet God can teach us valuable lessons from past events—in fact, it’s one of the reasons He’s provided us with His Written Word (“For all those words which were written long ago are meant to teach us today; that when we read in the Scriptures of the endurance of {people} and of all the help that God gave them in those days, we may be encouraged to go on hoping in our own time.”—Romans 15:4, Phillips). On the other hand, we can so bask in the “successes” of our personal history that we lose the incentive to change and/or do better—the Book of Hebrews addressed this tendency in God’s people of the late first century (and the early 21^st).

Pastor Rick Warren observes, “God never wastes a hurt”. In other words, He uses them to shape our lives for the better. Almost two millennia ago Paul stated this principle thusly: “…I do not count myself an expert in all of this (i.e. knowing Christ intimately), but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where Christ is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.” (Philippians 3:13-14, TM). Even earlier God’s prophet echoed His words to His people: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!” (Isaiah 43:18-19). That “new thing” began in us when we received Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and will continue until we’re with Him (Philippians 1:6). So we’re all works in progress.

In 1945 Benny Benjamin and George David Weiss wrote a song describing one’s failure to find true love because he went about it in the wrong way. It was recorded by Patti Page in 1954 and remained on the Billboard charts for 23 weeks. The chorus speaks to our leaving the past in the past:

Cross over the bridge, cross over the bridge

Change your reckless way o’livin’, cross over the bridge

Leave your fickle past behind you and true romance will find you

Brother, cross over the bridge

Will we leave our “fickle past behind us” and “cross over the bridge” to find our life’s purpose by living for and following Christ?

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan