Philippians 3:14 “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of GOD in CHRIST JESUS.”
Memory’s Assessment!
Repenting of wasted times and opportunities
Self squanders….can with frequency become a chain as well when someone wanders;
where “moving forwards” moments are transferred to such Regrets.
There is found a backwards pattern in one’s steps.
From such confessions — oft repeated — then be turned towards the LORD…
…wisely spending time FOR GOD than delayed by Sin’s remorse.
To be fully found — HIM serving —
then such snares must be discarded.
Yet keep Remembrance’s reviews in portions — partial.
Then the greatest of your efforts shall employ Progressions’ gains…where your faith is seen unwavering and your words are heard the same!
As HIServant not minimizing my scars NOR adding to them, but focused by far on forward and upward movements in HIS NAME,
Whitney
Devotional: There are so many different levels of dealing with past sin.
Some take the approach that since GOD remembers them no more, then neither will I.
Others never forget where they’ve come from and what GOD has faithfully brought them through and dwell on such remembrances in moderation.
Lastly, still others give more time to bemoaning their past than to moving beyond it.
Luke 9:62 “But JESUS said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of GOD.”
So I submit to you that each CHRISTian should identify which of these three levels they lean towards most.
Charles Spurgeon states the following:
“The nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart.”
“Faith and repentance are born together, live together, and thrive together. Let no man put asunder what GOD has joined together.”
So the remorse that Paul felt after the Damascus Road, heart and eye opening experience…must have been so heavy.
He killed and tortured CHRISTians. He was consenting and watching on at the stoning of Stephen.
So when GOD crushed his pride and self-righteousness in an instant, blinding him to all that he was and showing him how great his CREATOR is…that had a deep and lasting impact on the man formerly called Saul.
Verses come to mind.
Isaiah 43:25: “I, I am HE WHO blots out your transgressions for MY OWN sake, and I will not remember your sins!” Oh, Hallelujah!
Also Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool!”
2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in CHRIST, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
And quoting Charles Spurgeon again…“Until GOD can change or lie, HE never will bring to mind again the sin of that man whom HE hath pardoned.”
But our flesh often forgets and is prone to repeating sins, isn’t it?
Paul said the following in Romans 7.
Verse 15 “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 I thank GOD —through JESUS CHRIST our LORD!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of GOD, but with the flesh the law of sin.”
What a clear description of the battle over dealing with the memory of past sins and staying the course so as not to repeat them!
So my encouragement is to gauge your steps forward, how many are found going backward and when are you standing still…deep in prayer.
Though Paul, as we often do, wrestled mightily with this reality, he moved forward!
And so must we in the steps ahead to bring GOD’s Good News to the Lost and encouragement to the Body of CHRIST!
So don’t let Yesterday hinder Today’s steps in HIS service! Amen?
Yes and amen!
2CJC 