Dealing with past guilt and past accomplishments was a priority for the Apostle Paul.
Paul knew he had past regrets and past merits, but amazingly, he didn’t allow either to define him. He made a conscious decision to let go of both (Phil. 3:13). Why? He was focusing on his present and his future. His present was consumed with Christlikeness. His future was consumed with reaching the goal of heaven and receiving his rewards (Phil. 3:14). These are good patterns for the believer.
You can’t passionately pursue your present (Christlikeness) or your future (rewards Christ has for you) when you’re shackled by thoughts, regrets, or accomplishments of the past.
That would be like a sports team winning its championship. But in the next season they don’t practice, don’t learn new plays, and don’t recruit different players, simply because of the fact that they won the championship the prior season. If that was your team, you’d say “That was last season! This is now and he have a future!”
But brother or sister, you may be like many who live in the past. You can’t stop thinking about it. You can’t stop crying over it. You relive regrets over and over:
“What if I had just said this…..”
“What if I had just made this decision instead….”
“What if I had just tried a little harder….”
The past is a place that is sometimes ok to visit (primarily to learn from) but you don’t want to live there.
Do you need to learn from past mistakes, to fuel your passion towards Christlikeness now? Then start working on it. Get some help from a mentor and work on a strategy for dealing with and moving on from the past.
Do you need to let go of how great you were in yesteryear? We get it – you were pretty amazing back in the day. But let it go bro. Move on to the other things Jesus has for you.
Dealing with past guilt and past accomplishments was a priority for the Apostle Paul – and it should be for us also.