Forgetting what is behind . . . I press on . . . to win the prize for which God has called me. . . .
\n \u2014 Philippians 3:13-14<\/p>\n
Some memories cling to us like shadows\u2014our failures, our regrets, our missed opportunities. We replay them over and over, wondering what we could have done differently.\u00a0But the truth is that we can\u2019t change the past. Even so, we don\u2019t have to let it shape our present and our future.\u00a0Paul had a past too. Before becoming an apostle, he persecuted the church. If anyone had reasons to carry guilt, it was him. But instead of being paralyzed by his past, Paul focused forward\u2014not because he was perfect but because he was forgiven. The Lord\u2019s amazing grace gives us permission to let go.\u00a0Leaving the past behind isn\u2019t about denial. It\u2019s about refusing to let it define you. God is doing something new, and looking backward too long can make you miss what\u2019s right in front of you.\u00a0So if you’re carrying baggage from last year\u2014or from the past decade or more\u2014lay it down. God is not finished with you yet. In fact, he\u2019s just getting started.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jesus, help me to let go of what I cannot change. Free me from shame and regret, and fix my eyes on what lies ahead in life with you. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Forgetting what is behind . . . I press on . . . to win the prize for which God has called me. . . . \u2014 Philippians 3:13-14 Some memories cling to us like shadows\u2014our failures, our regrets, our missed opportunities. We replay them over and over, wondering what we could have done differently.\u00a0But<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1381],"class_list":["post-16358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-devotionals","tag-leaving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}