July 4 – Forgetting and Pressing On

“Brothers, I do not count myself yet to have laid hold. But one thing (I do) forgetting what lies behind (me) and eagerly straining forward to what lies ahead I am pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13-14*

Mentioned before, the Apostle Paul was very good at loading much into long complex sentences. This larger passage is another example. Paul continues sharing how deeply moved he was because he knows the pressures on the fellowship of Christians in the church at Philippi. There were those in the congregation who professed perfection. So Paul describes his thoughts. “As a believer in Christ alone, I for one am still far removed from the goal of spiritual perfection. Whatever anyone else may claim, I have not yet laid hold on it.” Paul, not despairing, instead is running in a race, while pushing himself to the limit to reach the goal. To be successful in this he has to do one thing; focus his concentration on completing the race to reaching the goal. Forget the past, strain forward for the future promises. What promises? The prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The Christian running the race stays the course with full commitment forgetting all past failures and past successes to reach the goal and the prize. The goal is heaven. The prize is awarded only where it is truly a prize, with Christ in heaven. 

*(Translation from: William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of Philippians, New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001), 5: 174.)

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February 22 – Forgive, Forget or Both?

“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.” – Isaiah 43:25 (NASB)

 

“I can forgive but I’ll never forget.” Have we ever heard someone say this? Maybe, we say it as well thinking that it is close to impossible to truly forget. It’s possible but we have to want to. Forgiveness, we can do, but if we can’t forget, the offense remains a thing and threatens to negates our forgiveness. Our Lord God declares in our verse today that He wipes out our sins and purposely removes them from His memory.  This verse is probably the high point of grace in the Old Testament. In spite of our utter unworthiness, the Lord in His grace has created a way that He can forgive our sins and grant righteousness without compromising His holiness. When as a sinner we recognize we can’t achieve our own righteousness by works, and in repentance call on the mercy of God, the Lord covers us with His own divine righteousness by grace. Through the faith he gifts to us, we stand forgiven. It is that righteousness that God sees when He looks upon us. We can forgive and by the same grace we can choose to forget by refusing to dwell on the memories.

 

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October 25 – Good To Do

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,”  Psalm 103:2-3 (NIV)

In the Psalms we often find the writer talking to himself. This verse is like that when David is addressing himself and reminding himself of the promise from God to forgive all our sins. These words remind us also that we have much to thank the Lord.  We need to remember how much God has done for us.  Let's look especially consider the word benefit. For some words we call attention to their meaning the original writing.  But this time it is not the Hebrew word we are considering but the English word benefit, that is used here to translate the original Hebrew. Benefit is made up of two Latin words GOOD and TO DO. The benefits of God are the GOOD things He HAS DONE for us. When we reflect and think about all good things He has done for us and all He good things he wants to do for us, isn't our response going to be, “Praise the Lord” just as David did?

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