How many people do you know who are unable to function in the present because of the past? One wonders how much of the Lord’s work goes undone because His children are bogged down with guilt. How are we to deal with the mistakes of the past so we can be productive in the future?
Why not do what the Apostle Paul did? Listen to his advice in Philippians 3:13,14, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, FORGETTING those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul was able to prove to others that he had changed and was now on the Lord’s side. In time no one came to question his commitment to Jesus.
A “credible fable” is told of two brothers, convicted of stealing sheep. They were branded on the forehead with letters “ST.” meaning “Sheep Thief”. One of the brothers was unable to bear the stigma and tried to bury himself in a foreign land; but men asked him about the strange letters, so he kept on wandering restlessly. The other brother said to himself, “I can’t run away from the fact I stole sheep. I will stay here and win back the respect of my neighbors and myself.”
As years passed, he built a reputation for integrity. Decades later, a stranger one day saw the old man with the letters on his forehead. He asked a native what they signified. “It happened a great while ago and I have forgotten the particulars, but I think the letters are an abbreviation for “SAINT.”
Please don’t let the past keep you from serving your God in the future.
Greely Kirkpatrick