“…this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” Philippians 13:3
As we get older it is sometimes easy to get into the habit of thinking how tough things are “these days”, and how great things were in the past, in “the good old days.” But, as someone once said, “the one good thing about the ‘good old days’ is that they are gone; they are in the past.”
A simple fact of life we all have to and should accept is that all the “good”, as well as the “bad” days, and things that happened to us in the past are, indeed, in the past, never to return. All the good and the bad things have to be left or laid to rest behind us if we intend moving forwards into the life and experiences Yehovah has prepared for us in our futures. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that Yehovah has plans to give us a “hope and a future.” Both hope and future are words which describe what is ahead, not behind us.
Imagine running a marathon race and spending all your time and effort thinking about what, who or how many people are behind you, or considering and being concerned about the slips or trips you experienced 5 miles after they happened. Instead of doing that, you concentrate on the road ahead of you – facing each new and fresh challenge as you reach it, rather than getting distracted by worrying about those things you can no longer avoid or change.
We must run the race set before us. As the writer of the book of Hebrews encourages us, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Yeshua the author and finisher of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2-3).