Forget

For the next two weeks, I want to draw your attention to passages in Scripture that detail the things worth forgetting and worth remembering. 

Today, we will focus on things worth forgetting. Once you forget them, you will experience more freedom.  I must add a caveat - namely, lest we fall into disillusionment, the forgetfulness of which I speak is a choice to move forward rather than a complete removal of memory.

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Isaiah 43:14-19 (NIV)  
This is what the LORD says--
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“For your sake I will send to Babylon
    and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians,
    in the ships in which they took pride.
I am the LORD, your Holy One,
    Israel’s Creator, your King.”
This is what the LORD says--
    he who made a way through the sea,
    a path through the mighty waters,
who drew out the chariots and horses,
    the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
    extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
“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.

Notice, in particular, the latter phrase in verse eighteen . . .
". . .do not dwell on the past."

The first thing to forget is the way things have always been done.

God speaks to the exiled Israelites, through Isaiah, explaining that while they should remember all the gracious and amazing things He did for them and their forebears, they should not expect God to do all things in the same fashion.  Geoffrey Grogan writes . . . "The fundamental principles of the divine activity are changeless, but the outward shape of that activity alters with the changing needs of God's people.  We are meant to reflect on the past with gratitude and stimulated faith but not to allow it to stereotype our expectations from God."  (261)

No stereotypes or boxes are varied or large enough to contain God.  God's nature never changes; His methods do.

Perhaps you did not recognize when God answered your prayer because you were blinded by expectation - expectation of a preconceived answer.  Perhaps your faith-base is built more on the foundation of your parents' religion than on your personal relationship with God.  

To you, as to Isaiah's audience, God declares, "See, I am doing a new thing!"  Take a moment now to reflect.  Seek His wisdom to know if you have been blind to see or deaf to hear His call upon your life.  Perhaps you have been praying to God asking about where He would equip you to minister to others.  Did you say "no" to an opportunity?  Has God called; yet you have not responded because you don't like the specifics?  He is calling you!  He is doing a new thing in you.  Forget the former things.  Sign on for the new things.

Philippians 3:7-14 (NIV)
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Writing as one who experienced great success before coming to Christ, Paul explains why he threw it all away to pursue Christ.  

A second thing to forget is what is behind.

While God can use your GPA, batting average, musical expertise, debating skill, and the speed of your 40-yard dash, each is of no consequence in comparison to your faithfulness to God's task.  

Often, we more quickly recognize the value of forgetting the negatives from our past; while at the same time, we prove rather slow in recognizing that our value comes from elsewhere than our past victories.  Thanks be to God, that "elsewhere" is in the grace of God.  Christ Jesus took hold of your prize for you.  Press on toward Him to claim that prize.  

Jesus speaks - giving us full confidence . . .

Revelation 22:12 (NIV)
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.”

Today, forgetfulness is a form of freedom.  Go and be free.

#ordinarylives


Reference:
Grogan, Geoffrey W. The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Ed. Frank E. Gaebelein. Vol. 6. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986.