Look & Learn

Philippians 3:¹³ “…but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.”

The light forward response to guilt is to Learn From The Past, without the past discouraging you from taking hold of your preferred future. One of the biggest things you can do for yourself is to learn from the past. Different people approach the past in different ways. Some do not even want to think about the past or talk about the past. They do not want to hear any reference to the past – do not bring it up! That is not the light forward response to guilt. We should be able to examine the past and admit where we goofed and celebrate our wins. You should be able to examine the past; see it for what it is – the past! What does the word past mean? Past means gone, it is past, but we should learn from the past.

Paul says to us in Philippians 3:¹³ “…but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead...”. Every car has a big windscreen but a small rear view mirror. You should have that ratio, that perspective as it regards the past. Learn from the past but forget the past. Learn from the past without the past discouraging you. One of the reasons a lot of us do not even want to have anything to do with the past is the past has a way of draining us, the past has a way of drowning us, and the past has a way of discouraging us. However, I want to challenge you today to have the courage to look at your past and learn from it.

So, your homework, in the past year, what is the number one thing that you did in 2022 that you are proud of. Think about it and write down the number one thing that happened to you or something you made happen that you are proud of. I want you to focus on that thing even now, have a mental picture of it. If you need to, take some time to think about it, please do. Now, what is the number one thing in 2022 that you are ashamed of? That thing that that if you have a big eraser, you will erase it from your history? Before you start erasing, think about it. Now I want you to be bold enough to confront these two events, look and learn.

The mistake we make and the reason a lot of people do not have repeated success even in their careers and their businesses is, they do not even learn from the things they do right. You must learn from both the things you did well and the things you did not do well. You need to learn from the past. So, what did you do well and what can you learn from it? Did you get promoted? Why did you get promoted? What can you learn from it? Did your business triple its annual revenue in the last quarter alone? What did you do and what can you learn from it? Similarly, where did you goof? Yes, you are not proud of it, but what can you learn from it?

Prayer: Father, I ask for the courage to look at and learn from my painful past and my joyful past without it eroding my future, in Jesus Name. Amen!