by Read Philippians 3:13-14
Paul uses his surroundings to teach God’s Word, just as Jesus used parables as word pictures to teach those around Him. He used Roman soldiers to illustrate the Armor of God to the Ephesians and used the Greek games to illustrate running a race to the Philippians. As a runner, Paul said he would not look back to those things behind but would keep his eyes fixed on the prize at the finish line. Nothing already passed in the race should interfere with the completion of the race. A good runner learns from past experiences, whether failures or success, and uses that knowledge to gain additional ground towards the finish line.
As Christians, we’re in a race. The prize is not our eternal salvation, but the precious words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). To attain this prize, we must keep our eyes focused forward and not backward, fixed on the finish line. We must forget those things which are behind because they will hinder the race that is set before us. Forgetting involves everything, both failures and successes. How often do we wallow about our past and how wonderful it was in the “good old days,” yet we look at our present state and wonder if we could have ever had those past successes? The same with past failures. We often dwell on the past so intently that our present is seemingly worse off. We must be careful. If we keep our eyes focused on the past, it will become a snare that prevents us from the same successes in the future, successes that God would have for us
To triumph in our race, we must be “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” As David Livingston said, “I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward. I determined never to stop until I had come to the end and achieved my purpose.”
