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 Tug of War
AWOE Magazine Life Study
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.
Philippians 3:13-14
This one thing I do!
How many of us really forget those things that are behind us?
We have this I’ll forgive, but I’ll never forget mentality holding us back from moving forward in our relationship with Christ.
We can’t seriously expect to reach forward if we’re holding onto something that is done and over with that we can’t change no matter how long we dwell on it!
If you’ve ever played tug of war you know two sides are trying to pull the other side in the middle. The side that is pulled in first loses the game. Life is just like that.
When we have our eyes set on those past experiences, relationships, disappointments, and we keep trying to pull to win, we will always be the one pulled in to lose.
Why?
Well, the past is just what it is, something that happen before!
When you play tug a war you have a group of people pulling with you.
When one of you get distracted by what’s going on behind you, you look back and when you look back the other team has their eye on you so they pull even harder because they know you’ve lost your focus.
In most tug of war it only takes a split second to pull the opposite side in the hole!
Just like in tug of war when you ignore what’s going on behind you it’s easier for you to pull in the opposing team because you’re focused.
It definitely makes it harder for them to pull you in because you’re both applying pressure so you can win. By keeping your eyes on the opposing team your eyes are on
the goal, and the distractions behind you becomes a background noise.
If anyone could have problems letting go of the past it would have been Apostle Paul who wrote the above scripture. For years he had gone around killing Christians in the name of religion under his birth name Saul.
God finally showed Saul the light on an old dirt road and he became Paul!
Talk about letting go of the past!
How do you go from, killing Christians to converting people into Christians?
I mean everyone had to know or at least heard of Paul in his Saul days.
I’m sure both Christians and unbelievers persecuted him, yet Paul set out to fulfill the will of God for his life. He refused to revert back to the sins of his past because he knew in Christ he had a future.
If he had stayed in his Saul mentality with everything he went through it wouldn’t have surprised me if he had went back to his old ways. I mean at least then one side would have been for him completely, but by this inward change he had invited trouble from both sides, but it didn’t stop him.
Today, I’m telling you don’t allow your past to pull you in either.
Don’t mope in the fact that you’ve made mistakes that you’re still making mistakes, but look ahead knowing that unlike before you’re aware of your issues. That God is there to help you work through each one of them. That through Christ you can truly do all things!
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusteth in him, and I am helped:
Psalm 29:7
The rope is in your hands.
Are you going to keep looking back only to risk losing the battle?
Or will you hold on tightly looking straight ahead at your opposition knowing in the end you win?
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