If you live a life following Christ you are sure to encounter what I call the push/pull of Christianity. The paradox of the past is one of those areas of tension between two seemingly different ways of life.
On the one hand God tells us many times in Scripture that we are to remember.
“Remember the days of old;
consider the generations long past.” Deuteronomy 32:7
“Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.” Isaiah 46:9
Yet, just two chapters before this passage in Isaiah, it is written,
“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 wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43: 18-19
And the apostle Paul tells us,
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,” Philippians 3:13
So which is it? Are we to remember our past or forget about it?
I think the key is in the notion of “in order to”. To paraphrase, Isaiah might be saying, “Don’t dwell on the past OR you might miss the new thing that God is doing right now.” Paul may be suggesting that there are things we need to let go of in our past in order to move forward into what God has for us in the future.
IF remembering your past hinders you from moving forward I suggest you take responsibility and do some heart work with the Lord. Forgiveness and repentance go a long way to clear out that which may be hindering you from taking steps forward in your destiny.
IF dwelling on the past keeps you looking back you will miss what God is doing today.
Remembering with gratitude all that the Lord has done in our lives is an act of worship and I recommend remembering and testifying to God’s hand in your life. Remembering and testifying is how we overcome the enemy who would love to keep us grounded in the past and the poor pitiful me attitude that so often finds us there. (Revelation 12:11)
As I write this I am reminded of what King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:1 when he wrote:
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
There is a time to remember. There is a time to stop looking back and look forward.
Let Holy Spirit guide you.