Philippians 3:13 

In Philippians 3:13, the Apostle Paul instructs us to GO ON; that is, to “forget those things which are behind.” No Christian should live in their past memories. Living in the past only serves to rob us of our present and to ruin our future.

Another common mistake of many Christians is to live today with past transgressions. Too many of us have fallen in the past and we can’t get up. We’re haunted by our past mistakes. In this new year, exorcise all the ghosts from your past. If God has forgiven you and forgotten your sins, what right do you have to keep bringing them up against you and bludgeoning yourself with them?

In addition to refusing to live any longer in our memories and with our past mistakes, we should also refuse to live on our past merits. Past performance never justifies present action. Many laggards and lowlifes attempt to justify their present lives on the basis of their past laurels. However, what matters today is not what you’ve done, but what you’re doing. It’s not how you’ve lived, but how you’re living.

In order to go on with our lives in this new year we must also adhere to the Apostle Paul’s additional admonition to “reach forth unto those things which are before” us. While there is nothing wrong with learning from the past and planning for the future, we must live in the present. As someone has astutely observed: “Yesterday is but a memory and tomorrow but a dream; today is all we’re promised.”