Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18,19)
How easily do you shake off a bad shot on the golf course? Or a bad hole? Or a bad nine? Or maybe even a bad round? My husband used to tell me that he could tell how I played that day by the way I drove into the driveway. (In my defense, I wasn’t a Christian then, but I’m still ashamed and sorry about that.)
One of the most critical components of a successful golf round is the ability to focus exclusively on the shot at hand, the one you are about to hit. You visualize the shot and run through your pre-shot routine.
You focus on the ball as you make each swing with one or more swing thoughts. There are thousands of tips, articles, videos, and seminars to help teach golfers how to focus during a round of golf.
But that forward focus cannot be achieved if you are still upset, mad, and irritated by the last golf shot you hit.
For the believer, the word of God directs our focus forward. We are given a new identity in Christ, the old is gone, and the new has come. Paul talks about those who will not inherit the kingdom of God: the sexually immoral, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, or swindlers. But he also says, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Don’t you love all the ‘buts’ in the Bible? Here is a short list: “but God remembered Noah, but God said to Abraham, but God did not permit him to harm me, so it was not you who sent me here, but God, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever, but God knows your hearts, but God was with him, but God raised him from the dead, but God gave the growth, but God being rich in mercy.”
All these “buts” show us the life-changing truth and power of the Lord Jesus that is available to each of us who has believed and received the finished work of Jesus Christ. Paul says, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
And that goal is to be free of our past and fully accept and receive what our Lord has for us in the future. That future is not only in the “sweet by and by” but also applies to what is left of every day that he gives us breath. God calls us his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works, which he prepared in advance for us to do.
Will you confess (agree with God) your sins and allow him to cleanse you from all unrighteousness? He is faithful to do that—every time you mess up. There is freedom in keeping short accounts and not being dragged down by your past. God promises to bury that sin in the deepest part of the sea and remember it no more.
Prayer: Father God, will you help me not dwell on my past but press on to the new thing you have for me? Use me to your glory, in Jesus’ name.