Background Bible Reading: Philippians 3:13b
Once again the earth has made a complete revolution around the sun and we stand at the gateway of a new year. The old year is behind us. For it, there will be no return because the curtain has rung down upon it forever. The wheels of time cannot be reversed. Its record is made and cannot be changed for the past is not ours to change or modify. The past is a finished product.
But why should it return? It gave us all that it had. Everything that it possessed has been laid in our lap. Doubtless there are some things we would like to change. There are some things we regret and yet some things that we rejoice in. Nevertheless the year 2004 is gone and the record stands.
As we embark upon a New Year, it is within our power to determine what its record shall be. While the past is no longer a moment in time but rather a memory of triumph or torment, determined by what we did with it, the year 2005 now lies before us. We know the exact length of its stay, even down to the number of seconds that it shall yield. We even know when it too will be ushered out of this world and interred in the archives of history.
The question we want to consider is how shall we approach this New Year?
In Philippians 3:13, Paul gives to us the secret of spiritual development: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do; forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before…”
Some people have no life at all, except in retrospect and in prospect. They always dwell on the memories of the past or the anticipation of the future while the present (from which the future flows) slips from their grasp.
Dr. Robert Burdette said, “There are two golden days in the week about which I never worry. One of them is yesterday and the other one is tomorrow. There is but one day in the week that is mine and that is today.”
So Paul admonishes us first of forgetting the past and by a faithful, obedient walk in the present we then can reach forth to the future with confidence. Forgetting those things which are behind, otherwise the past will paralyze any growth we may gain in the present.
1. We must forget our past failures. Retrospection is good and necessary if we gain wisdom by acknowledging where we might have acted differently and learned from our past mistakes and failures. However, to dwell on them and harbor the guilt of the past is a sure way to stunt any growth in the future. We must remember the infinite love and mercy of God and rely on His forgiveness of the past and depend on His sustaining grace for the future.
2. We must forget our past achievements. This may sound counterproductive but we must not live on the successes of the past lest we become satisfied, lazy and self-complacent. Dr. William T. Watkins (speaking of the church) said, “Nothing dims more rapidly than a religious vision unless it is kept fresh by repeated returns to the place of vision. The peril of religion is that it will remember that it had a vision, instead of remembering that it has not one now; it lives on the vision of the prophets instead of on the vision of the present. Religion is never fresher than its most recent vision, never more powerful than its latest baptism. A religion that does not make its devotees vibrant with power and victory can speak no miraculous word to its age.”
Reaching forth unto those things which are before; we must be spiritually aggressive. Spiritual growth never comes to those desiring it; it is found by those who seek it. The figure that Paul gives here, “reaching and pressing,” is one of an athlete - the stretching body of the runner with his eyes on the prize.
We are ordinary people with ordinary abilities but when we yield ourselves wholly to Him and are filled with the Holy Spirit the dynamics change. He takes our common gifts and makes them gloriously efficient.
The only difference between a bit of black carbon and a luminous lamp that brightens the dark night like mid-day, is the electricity that passes through the carbon. The only difference between two people of equal gifts and opportunities, the one a soul winner and the other a respectable, moral church member is that the church member is like the dead carbon with no light, fire or power. The soul winner is wholly given to God, has the electricity (dynamic) of the Holy Spirit shining through his every word, countenance and deed until he becomes the light of the world.
May in this New Year we follow Paul’s example. “This one thing we do” above all else is to be wholly possessed of God and His love that we may be instrumental in bringing about a revival so as to win our families, friends and neighbors to Christ. Don’t think that you can do nothing because you do not seem to be specially gifted. Every one of us can pray and prayer is our greatest weapon.
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