Don't look backward with regret, instead keep your eye on the prize

Keeping the main thing, the main thing is a challenge. It is all too easy to look backward and forget to keep our eyes on what is important. The writer of Philippians makes this very clear for us:

that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

Philippians 3: 11-14

I particularly love what he wrote "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead"...

This is a vision we should all have. Our goal should be always to go forward toward God. In fact, often we don't feel like we can or should go forward to God because our sins are too great. But this type of thinking is a common fallacy. The truth is that God wants us to turn to him anyway. Even as sinners - especially as sinners. All of us have sinned; all have fallen short. Just as sick people need a doctor, we sinners all need Jesus. We can and should turn to God, even when we look at our past and think our sins are too great. There is no sin too great to be redeemed by Jesus. 

It is human to feel ashamed of our sins, but even in the Garden of Eden, God made it clear that he wants us to turn to him, not away from him.

We should not look backward, but instead to press on toward the goal.

If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:

• No-one is beyond salvation
  
• The two biggest deceptions Satan would have you believe
• Blessed assurance - how do you know you have accepted the salvation offered by Jesus?