Forgetting to be Faithful

forgetting those things which are behind
Phil 3:13

Part of being faithful is forgetting. No, I didn’t say “forgiving”… I said “forgetting” and the “ing” part is very important here. The Apostle Paul, who lived an amazing, faith-filled-life, is wonderful at telling us how we can live this kind of life as well. In his famous passage about “the prize of Christ Jesus”, Paul tells us part of walking out our faith involves a daily, on-going effort of forgetting. Paul did not say “forget” what is behind – he said “forgetting”. God purposefully inspired Paul to use a present tense word because He knows we need Him present-tensely every day!

In order to walk in freedom and live out our faith in a way that blesses others and brings us joy, hope and peace, God calls us over and over to take an active part—in this case “actively forgetting”. He knows our tendencies to rest on our past successes or stay stuck in our past failures so much that we are little present good. He knows He could tell us to forget and move on… but He also knows our minds tend to go right back there given the next opportunity. Instead, God tells us to be in a state of “forgetting” so the past (good or bad) does not prevent us from living this day to see all the new things God will do and do through us.

So what does “actively forgetting” look like? It means I acknowledge the tendency I have to live in the past. I don’t rest on my successes no matter my age or how long I have walked with Christ. I keep moving forward expecting God to do new, great things. If I have nothing new to add to my testimony, I have a problem because we serve an amazing God who constantly wants to work in and through us. This also means I don’t wallow in my failures and allow the enemy to hold me down with things God has already forgiven. Yes, you may have messed up but what Satan intends for evil God uses for good all the time when we repent and give it to Him. The question is: Are you ready for the new things God will do? Are you daily forgetting those things which are behind and expecting God to do new things? He is ready… are you?

Father- Thank you for forgiving me for so many things. I know the enemy wants to hold me down by reminding me of when I have failed you. Help me to take those thoughts captive and walk forward in the grace you have offered. Thank you for all you have done in my life…the mountaintop experiences. I cherish those things and my faith has grown because of it. But Father, I know you have new things to do in my life and you aren’t done writing my testimony. Please help me to not “rest” in yesterday’s successes. I know you aren’t done with me yet. I love you Lord. Amen.

Everything is permissable... but

“Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything.
1 Cor 6:12

My family all sat together in our living room. I wish I could tell you the picture warmed my heart…but it didn’t. We were together but not “together”. A football game was on the television, two of us held laptops checking Fantasy Football scores, another played a game on Ipod touch and I held my Blackberry checking Facebook. The last bit of family conversation I could recall revolved around when to go play Xbox. I wish I could tell you this “family moment” was an unusual occurrence, but over the past few weekends it has been the norm at our house. I am not sure how we slipped into this kind of distracted, disengaged-kind-of-normal… but we have. Now mind you, none of us are doing anything immoral but it seems we have spent too much time lately on things that are permissible but not necessarily beneficial. I have to confess that I have even wondered if those permissible things (like Facebook) have started to “master” me. Yep, I do believe the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us something.

I am so thankful for the gentle leading of the Holy Spirit. He is so good to warn us when things start to get out of hand—not so we can fall into legalism but so we can experience the good things of God which are so much better than the worldly things which might consume and distract us. God gives His people freedom but He also gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us to walk freely in that freedom – not mastered by anything of this world. The enemy wants us to be so consumed, so distracted that we fail to hear the Holy Spirit and the enemy doesn’t just use sin in his arsenal. He also delights in tempting us to choose the permissible over the beneficial. As Christians and as parents, we need to slow down and listen to the Holy Spirit. We need to evaluate our lives, learn to balance our time, choose those things which are beneficial and eternal and teach our children to do so as well. When we do, we will be blessed in this life and the life to come.

Father: Thank you for your Holy Spirit. Thank you for giving us freedom, but thank you also for giving us guidance to choose your best in this life. Help me to hear your voice and walk in your ways. Help me to guide my family so they will learn to do follow you and not be mastered by those things which are not beneficial. I love you Lord. I need your guidance daily. May I live this day and spend my time loving others and bringing you glory. Amen.