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PAGE TITLE: CBN Daily Devotional
ARTICLE TITLE: Letting Go Of
Yesterday
AUTHOR: Wally Odum
DATE: N.A
AUTHOR
INFORMATION: Pastor
Wally Odum has been in ministry for 30 years and loves to share the Gospel. He
brings a relevant, inspirational approach to the Bible. Wally values relevance,
but he also values authenticity. His goal is to make Biblical truth relevant to
the lives of all who hear him. Visit Wally Odum's Website - www.wallyodum.com.
Daily Devotional
Letting Go Of Yesterday
By
Wally Odum
Guest Writer
Memory
can be tricky. Beryl Pfizer captured what I sometimes do. She explained, “I
write down everything I want to remember. That way, instead of spending a lot
of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking
for the paper I wrote it down on.”
Even
though I have typical problems with my memory, my past shows up unexpectedly in
my dreams. While I’m sleeping I will experience, in living color, some drama
that evokes a deep emotional response. My dreams can go so far into my past
that the actors may be people who have passed on.
But,
the anxieties that dreams stir up in me seem so real that I wake up breathing
hard. It means that there is somewhere in my subconscious mind a recorder that
won’t stop taping. It goes back to real events in my life, but also creates
scenes that reawaken old worries. It has the power to hit “replay” and not only
interrupt my sleep but also disturb my days.
My
conclusion is that even though I have memory problems when I’m awake, my past
anxieties are still buried somewhere in my subconscious. What do I do when
those old feelings bubble to the surface of my mind? Paul’s advice to the
Philippian believers is still the answer.
“But
one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I
press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians
3:13-14).
Interestingly,
Paul wrote, “This one
thing I do” then mentioned two
things. It must mean that those two actions are so connected that they can’t be
done alone. We can’t strain toward something without forgetting what is behind.
We
can’t focus our minds on Jesus and what He can do for us while we’re focusing
our minds on our past and what we’ve done—either good or bad. Paul wanted all
of us to know that we have to lay aside our past successes and failures to
possess our futures. Listen to the terms he used to describe the future we’re
to pursue. We strain toward ... the goal ... to win the prize ... for which God
has called ... heavenward in Christ Jesus. Whatever those things behind were,
we’re to focus on God and the goal He has for us in Christ Jesus. We can’t look
both ways at once. That’s why turning from the things behind is something we are to do. If we have come to
the cross and received the forgiveness Jesus provided for us, we don’t have to
lug old, negative memories with us into a new year.
Thankfully,
one of the things we can put behind us is our emotional pain. We have each been
hurt. But, we can move on from that pain and whatever caused it to a bright
future. We don’t want to look back because, as every runner knows, when we look
back we slow down.
Forgetting
doesn’t mean, of course, that we wipe out our memories. It means we make a
conscious decision not to let the past absorb our attention and hinder our
progress. If we can move from this year to the next by choosing to be free from
our past, we will be positioned to focus on the future and what God has in
mind.
Instead
of being consumed with our past behavior (good and bad), we can depend on who
Jesus is and what He’s done. That will free us from our old worries and fears.
As Corrie ten Boom once wrote, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it
empties today of its strength.” There’s a better way. We can forget the things behind and
spend our energies straining toward what is ahead.
