The Word of God tells us many times that we need to remember. And it tells us to forget what lies behind. Is that contradictory? I think not! So, how do we find a balance? I think there are probably a few pointers that can help but ultimately it’s the Holy Spirit dwelling inside us that will give us each the keys for our individual lives.
I think there are at least two categories of things behind us. For our purposes I’ll label them A) those places we saw God work in large and small ways, and B) those places we could not find God at the time, whether or not we tried. The A category is easy to talk about, remember and celebrate. The B category is the stuff we are more likely to struggle with putting behind us. They usually are full of lessons learned the hard way.
Many times we see or hear one of God’s greatest promises when we face struggle. It is easy to allow it to sound like a pitiful and powerless cliché. Romans 8:28 tells us that “God works all things together for good for those who love Him and I called according to His purpose.”
This one verse, and its larger context, do an amazing job of holding the tension between good and evil as well as between forgetting and remembering. We need to be able to forget the bad things that have happened to us and yet we need to remember their lessons. By looking for God in those circumstances, and choosing to believe that all in Romans 2:28 really does mean all things, we begin to see the larger perspective.
That process allows us to re-frame our past from God’s perspective. That re-framing disarms the pain and allows us to look at the “fireworks” of the past with awe and thankfulness for our Creator’s presence with us and not from fear of the fire and the noise.
Romans 8:28 Is surrounded by the love of God. Just before it Paul is explaining that we are already adopted as children of the Creator for eternity. The word hope is used 5 times in that paragraph.
The paragraph following Romans 8:28 holds one of the most amazing promises of God’s love ever written. Verses 37-39 read: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. where I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, or anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Abba, what do you want me to celebrate today? What has been niggling at me that you want me to ask you to show me some of the good I was not able to see before today? Help me to see it as you do, to re-frame it, knowing that you work all things together for good (even if I can’t see it now) for those who love you and are called according to your purpose!
Finally, help me to strike a balance like the Apostle Paul. “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining 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.
