Volume 1 Post/Email 5 – Philippians 3:13-14
Have you ever been down on yourself, had regrets, and even felt guilt, over something in your past?
I think we all have.
It might be something we said last week or something we did a decade or more ago.
Paul had a past that could have overwhelmed him with guilt. While Saul, he had persecuted Christians in the name of God and righteousness. Once encountering Jesus and learning his zeal was unmerited and unacceptable to God, there was nothing he could do to change his past.
None of us can change the past. Whether it is something we did to hurt someone else, or something someone else did to hurt us. What we can do is what Paul claimed to do.
Philippians 3:13-14 reads, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. 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.”
Like Paul, we can lose the negative baggage and move forward doing God’s will in view of heaven!
Paul distinguishes in 2 Corinthians 7 between a healthy and unhealthy guilt. If we have current sins that we repeat then we should feel a guilt that leads to repentance.
However, an unhealthy guilt is to continue to feel shame and guilt over something for which you have already been forgiven.
Another thing Philippians 3:13-14 teaches against is self-pity. We can choose to dwell on the negative, even making excuses or feeling sorry for ourselves, or we can press on in faith and hope.
May we be reminded this week of God’s redemption of our past and promises concerning our future. May God continue to heal those in need of healing, and may we all seek to be agents of his healing grace and forgiveness to all others.
-Brian
