Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. (Philippians 3:13)

How many times have you said to yourself, “I can never forget what I did”, or “how can I forget what was done to me?”  We need to make a choice to not think on those things by putting on the mind of Christ. Forgetting here is not so much losing the memory of something but rather setting it aside and not rehearsing it over and over. It is the mind of Christ that will help us to put aside those things which are behind us. We must also engage in  spiritual warfare against the enemy that tries to remind us of our past.

Coming from a background of shame and an indulgence of humiliating sin, I have learned this great insight. If you pay attention to your past, your future will be aimless because you are not focusing on where you are going. Can you stare behind yourself and look forward at the same time? No! The enemy wants our attention on our past so that he can keep us in shame. We can not be used by God fully when we are bound by shame.Therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1). We have been washed, sanctified, justified and forgiven. Move on!

Keep looking forward to Jesus and press toward the mark. God doesn’t hold our past against us, so why should we? God sees those who have repented and turned to His Son . He has thrown our sins into the sea of forgetfulness and removed them as far as the east is from the west.

In order to forget our past, we must first forgive ourselves. Make a choice today to look to what God has planned for you, forget the past and forgive yourself!

TMMC-The Teaching Ministry of Michael Cannatello