Can you believe 2020 is finally over? After everything that happened — a global pandemic, social upheaval, jobs lost, routines disrupted — we enter a new year with hope that things will be different. But here’s the danger: we carry so much from the previous season into the new one. The anxieties, the failures, the disappointments. We drag our past into our future without even realizing it.
That’s exactly what Paul addresses in Philippians 3:13. He writes: “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal.” This wasn’t just a new year’s message — Paul had a lifetime of past stuff he could have dwelt on. And he chose to leave it behind.
Leave Your Past Mistakes Behind
Paul was a persecutor of the early church before Christ saved him. He destroyed the faith he later came to champion. And in verse 13, he says he’s forgetting what lies behind — that includes his past sins.
“I was formerly a blasphemers, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I received mercy, that in me Christ Jesus might display his patience as an example to those who would believe.”
— 1 Timothy 1:13, 16
Paul could have spent decades wallowing in guilt over what he did to Christians. But he didn’t. He moved forward. And we need to do the same. God tells us to leave our past sins behind — not so we can forget them, but so we can move forward with the calling God has for us.
Don’t Dwell on the Magi’s Mistakes Either
Here’s something you might not have thought about: the Magi traveled a great distance to see Jesus, but they went home a different way because they were warned not to go back to Herod. They left behind a dangerous situation — and they didn’t look back.
Sometimes the right response to a difficult season is simply to leave it and not return to it. To make a clean break and move on. Not everything needs to be resolved before you move forward.
Don’t Let Success Define You Either
Past failures aren’t the only thing that can hold us back. Sometimes success can be equally dangerous. We can start living on our past accomplishments, relying on what we’ve already achieved instead of pressing forward.
Whether you’ve failed or succeeded, neither should define your present. You need the wisdom to know the difference between reflecting on the past and being trapped by it.
Press On — Even When You Fail
New Year’s resolutions are a perfect example of this. Most people have given up within the first month. Why? Because they try to be perfect, fail once, and then quit entirely. “If I can’t do it perfectly, I might as well not do it at all.”
Paul says it’s okay to be imperfect. He says he’s not perfect — he presses on. And neither should we be paralyzed by our failures. When we fail, we get back up and keep going. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s progress.
Add to Your Faith
In 2 Peter 1:3-10, Peter gives us a model for pressing forward: add virtue to your faith, knowledge to your virtue, self-control to your knowledge, steadfastness to your self-control. It’s a process — one step at a time, building on what God has already given you.
This year, don’t try to do everything at once. Don’t let last year’s failures paralyze you. And don’t rest on last year’s successes. Just take the next step. Press on.
Scripture References
- Philippians 3:13-14 — Pressing On Toward the Goal
- 1 Timothy 1:13, 16 — Paul’s Past and God’s Mercy
- Matthew 2:12 — The Magi Return Home a Different Way
- 2 Peter 1:3-10 — Adding Virtue to Your Faith