Thursday, December 23, 2021

The Race

“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” (Philippians 3:13).

Back in the late 1800’s, a man named John Nelson Darby was asked the following question:

“With what do you connect the ‘forgetting those things which are behind?’ ”

Here is his answer:

“I connect it with this: “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee” (Proverbs 4:25). If I were running in a race, I should not stop to see how I was getting on, or somebody else would soon out-distance me. There will be time enough to reckon up victories when I have reached the goal.”

To dwell on past failures will discourage us, and to dwell on past victories will fill us with pride. Often in the Bible the believer is likened to an athlete with the goal and prize before them. Paul could add, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). The goal is Heaven, and the prize is Christ.