Glancing Back

“And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Hebrews 10:17 While returning to the states on a military transport in the 60s, before modern GPS systems, I asked the navigator what he was doing as he pushed a compass (called a sextant) through a port in the skin of the aircraft. I was seated, by invitation, in the jump seat between the pilot and copilot and was unfamiliar with the workings of flying an airplane. When the navigator turned and looked rearward through his device, I asked why he was looking back where we had already been. He replied, “To get an accurate reading of where you’re heading, you have to look back at your starting point.” As saved (born again) men and women (See John 3:5), it is okay to glance back to gauge how far you have come in your walk with Christ. But, I caution some who are troubled because of their past. Do not go back there to live. Remember that “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3) and that Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). There is nothing more to do but to love and serve God by going out to “preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:18-19). Remember, we are new creatures. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). There is security and comfort in the words of Jesus. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). Stop living in the past and let’s go to work, fellow saint!