, Rita and I want to wish you a very happy New Year. I as thinking this morning that if you want to run the race of life successfully, then don't look back. If you ever have run a race and looked over your shoulder to see what your competitor was doing, then you know that looking back can break your stride and ultimately cause you to lose the race.
Paul, along the same lines, says in Philippians 3:13, "Forgetting those things which are behind. . . . " If you are going to walk with the Lord, then you must forget the things that are behind. Here, the word "forget" doesn't mean a failure to remember as much as it means no longer being influenced or affected by the past.
Here is what you need to do as you enter into a new year: Forget the things that are behind. While you may not be able erase them from your memory, you don't need to let them influence you. Sometimes we dredge up the things God has forgiven and forgotten. The Lord says, "I will remember their sins no more" (Jeremiah 31:34). Yet many times we will bring past sins up, forgetting the fact that our God has a big eraser. Why should we choose to remember what God has chosen to forget? If God has forgiven my sins and forgotten them, then I need to leave them behind, learn from my mistakes, not do the same thing again, and move forward.
In addition to forgetting our sins, we should also forget our victories. Certainly, we are to thank God for them. But we need to remember that it is a new year with new opportunities.
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