Minister’s Corner: It’s time to move on

The Apostle Paul had a past to forget. Scripture tells us that he had tortured and murdered many innocent people simply because they were followers of Jesus. He had caused a lot of pain and had done much damage to the cause of Christ. Then he had the Damascus Road experience where he came to Christ. At that point, he was faced with a choice. He could either dwell on his mistakes and let them ruin his chance for effective ministry, or he could forget about it and move on with his life.
Maybe you’ve had a bad experience or maybe you did something long ago that you regret. Maybe the memories keep coming back to haunt you, keeping you from living a full life today. Many people can’t get on with their lives because of past failures. Have you ever heard the old saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again?” Winners never quit and quitters never win. We must forget the past. It’s over. It’s done. It’s gone. It cannot hurt you anymore. There is nothing you can do to change it. You can only forget it and move on. If you dwell upon it, it will surely cause you to hesitate when action is clearly called for. If you have given your heart and life to Christ, then He has forgiven you of your sins and erased your transgressions. He has thrown them into the Sea of Forgetfulness.
Think of life as a game. We may have flubbed it the first half. But regardless of the past, regardless of the mistakes we have made, we still have the rest of the game to play. God is willing to forget about the mistakes of the first half. He expects us to do the same.