Sometimes it feels like we can’t get away from our pasts. They seems to cling to us like soap scum on a bathtub.

It’s not just bad things either. Sometimes good things we did in the past can hold us back from our futures.

Most people can’t conceive the amount of life they actually have ahead of them. We seem to think we will live forever here on earth, but physically we won’t. We will die someday. Sadly, we let past life tie up future life.

Paul said to the Phillipians, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (ESV)

Obviously, things were getting in the way of where Paul wanted to be headed. The answer: forget it. Don’t wrestle with it anymore. This is one of the biggest hindrances to people who are now trying to live righteously. Simply put, don’t let past mistakes in your head.

However, this isn’t just for people who have come from hard backgrounds like drugs or alcoholism. This includes the saint who has sat on the pew for 30 years and has never done anything significant for God in his whole life. Now he is stuck in the rut of merely doing what he has always done, nothing. If you are either of those people, you need to forget the past.

But don’t forget it completely. Here’s why: “I will remember the goodness of the Lord.”

What we are forgetting is the good or bad things in the past about ourselves. What we are remembering are the good things in the past that God has done.

And you? What good things do you need to let go of? What past mistakes do you need to drop off with God and not pick up again?