Lent.....

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."  Phillipians 3:13-14

These verses have been weighing heavily on my mind.  I guess it is because really and truly, that is what we should do.  The past is just that the past.  It  is gone, we cannot get it back.  God says he casts all our sins away and they are forgotten.  Why then can we not do the same?  If we ask God's forgiveness and bring our sins and doubts to him, we are to let it go.  We are to leave them there.  God loves us, he does not want us looking back on our journey.  He sent his Son to pay the ultimate price so that we did not have to.  We should be reaching, straining as Beth Moore said, toward  the Father.   You cannot strain toward God if you are looking behind you.  That is what satan wants from us.  He wants us to be so consumed with guilt and shame that we cannot move forward from our past.  He wants us to be tangled up in the knots of sin that Jesus died to untangle us from.  

With Lent season upon us we should keep that in the forefront of our minds.  We should be preparing for Jesus' return not fretting over what we have or have not done.  There is still time to change.  God is still God, he can still work wonders and miracles if you let him.  There is still time to let go of sin and unforgiveness and cling to an unchanging hand.......