FROM THE DAWGHOUSE…
REMEMBERING TO FORGET
“…but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:13-14
Sometimes when I start my DAWG I realize that the Enemy has already pushed me down and I find myself struggling to just stand up.
It’s like I’m in the sodden field of guilt that has the most slippery muck you’ve ever walked on. Well, you can’t walk on it — you can barely stand up!
If you don’t know what I mean, be grateful, but I bet you do. It’s like the epic battle scene in the movie, The King. A young Henry V is fighting with his troops in a rain saturated field in France and the knights in heavy armor can hardly keep their footing. It’s a muddy, bloody, awful death scene with men being stabbed and then forced face first to the ground to drown in the mud. The Prince of France gets off his horse to fight Henry, falls in the muddy grass and cannot get up after several attempts to gain footing. Four or five of the English invaders at the nod of the King swarm him and stab him repeatedly, to death.
Guilt will take us down while the enemy stabs our faith to death… if we permit it.
Don’t permit it.
Our enemies, Satan and his black ops team, are ever on the prowl so they can lead us into the sodden, mucky field of guilt where we will slip and can’t get up, and sometimes it starts right in the morning.
That’s why we Christian warriors all need to have this verse from Philippians at our disposal and learn to remember that we must forget certain things…i.e. not let them have an impact on us by slowing us down, isolating us, causing depression.
We really can’t forget what’s happened, but we can be trained by the Spirit of God to not allow the past to impact the present. It takes faith activated conscious forgetting.
We must remember to forget what is difficult to forget…
Our public sins which sling fresh shame on us often because others know of them and have us stuck with those sins as the final evaluation of us. We know they peg us with those sins and may never let us be different.
Our past relatively private sins that hurt those closest to us.
Our past sort of secret sins that make us wince when we remember what others probably don’t know of us.
The cross work of Jesus is sufficient to help us to stand. God’s grace pours concrete on the mud, giving us firm footing. Meditating on verses like these causes us to lifts our heads, our spirits, and enables us to armor up for another day.
Romans 5:1
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Romans 8:1
Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 1:12-17
12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, 13 even though I was previously a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; 14 and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. 15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost. 16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost sinner Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
The work of Jesus is so powerful, that God through faith, becomes our Father and He really isn’t angry at us. How could He be angry after what Jesus went through? He really does view us as flawless. So today I’m going to cooperate with Him by remembering to forget what I need to forget, my past, and look forward to what I’m becoming and what He has for me to do.
Remember to forget…and do it now.
You take it to heart,
Pete Alwinson
