Selective Forgetfulness

Philippians 3:12-14 (NLT) I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Sadly, it seems that one of the lessons I have to keep revisiting in my Christian walk is the lesson of forgetfulness. I know and have memorized this scripture out of Philippians that I need to move forward and forget the past but there seems to be something built into my system that keeps bringing up the past wounds and hurts. I try to turn that switch off but the voice keeps messing with my head reminding me that I have a long way to go. Past events, conversations and memories are then kept at the forefront of my thoughts making it nearly impossible to move forward with my walk of faith. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are things that I absolutely can forget about. When put into a difficult or stressful situation – I tend to forget about God’s goodness and faithfulness in the past. I am like the people of Israel who had been given and had seen so many miracles, but when put into a hard place they wondered if God was even with them. We are all fine - as long as we don’t have any problems facing us or stressful decisions to make. But when that bill is due and that confrontation is eminent we tend to forget that God has always been there and that He promised that He would never leave nor forsake us. Actually, if the truth be known, God, knowing that our faith sometimes goes flat and that we tend to trust in ourselves more than we do in Him – He then gives us trials and difficulties to bring us back to that place of fully trusting Him. The process of forgetting the past and moving forward is a difficult and long journey that seems to sometimes go backwards rather than forward. I am constantly challenged as to whether I’m going to fully trust God or I’m going to lapse back into my old way of thinking. Thankfully, God so loves me that He also forgets some things in my life – like my past sins and my past failures. In fact, he tells me that He will put those sins in the “Sea Of Forgetfulness” and will remember them no more. I guess God has selective forgetfulness also. He chooses to not remember who I was but chooses to focus on who I am and most importantly who I am becoming. Knowing this, I now press forward for the mark that is before me. I trust God that He is going to lead and guide me to the goal that is set before me and the prize that awaits me. What a wonderful journey this has been. I am so looking forward to what God has in store for me today.