Looking Ahead To The New Year

   It is amazing how rapidly time passes. This final bulletin of the year reminds us of the new year lying before us with all the challenges it will bring. None of us know what awaits us, yet because of God we can face it optimistically.

We need to be reminded that we cannot live in the past. Life is an ever-changing series of events and while we can profit from each of them, we must not let the past destroy us. Whatever losses we have sustained and whatever battles we may have lost must be recognized, and then we must deal with present realities.

Perhaps Paul saw it best. His past had two major factors which could have destroyed his future.  The first was his notoriety in Judaism. He had no peers who surpassed his accomplishments; he affirmed that he “. . . advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers” (Gal. 1:14). He was truly the most outstanding “Hebrew of the Hebrews” (Phil. 3:5). Such recognition would have destroyed many individuals, but Paul knew how to deal with the past! He was determined that the past would not shipwreck the future.

The other major factor in Paul’s past was the evil he had done. He had hated Christianity. He had imprisoned Christians. He had killed them! Such actions would have destroyed many a man, but Paul understood God and His mercy and grace. While past deeds haunt many individuals in our day, Paul had learned how to deal with them!

What was his secret in dealing with past actions? Hear his own words: “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14). Forget the past! We must not live on past accomplishments, nor can we let past mistakes ruin us.

There is that prize which lies ahead, but it will be ours only if we finish the race or win the final battle. We have a goal, but it lies in the future! The fact that it is in the future means that we have not yet attained it. We have a goal and there is no past mistake that makes it an impossible goal. That goal is the upward call from our God.

As this year ends take time to reflect on where you are. Take time to assess what your highest priority is. Then never let the past fill you with pride or cripple you with depression. Forget the past—press onward and upward!

Eric