09/06/2026
Press On: Everything the accuser has on you was already paid for.
Scripture
"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." — Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)
Reflection
This morning at church, the sermon was built on the third chapter of Philippians. In it, the Apostle Paul admitted: he had not arrived.
The man who wrote a large share of the New Testament and planted churches across the Roman world wrote, from prison, that he had not yet taken hold of it. If Paul had not arrived, nobody reading this has either. That should give all of us hope and it should keep all of us humble.
I work in a business that never forgets anything. Every story I have published is archived, timestamped and retrievable by anybody with an internet connection and a few minutes. So I understand — probably better than most — that a record does not disappear because you would prefer it to.
Paul didn't state that his record disappeared. Instead: "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead." He is telling us where he puts his attention and his effort. Forgetting, in that verse, is an instruction to let go of our forgiven sin; it means letting go of shortcomings, mistakes or missed opportunities.
Learn from them, but don't dwell.
That's a choice we each make. Every day. The accuser (and yes, there is evil and it works against you) would rather you dwell on your sins, failures, missed opportunities and shortcomings.
Which is why one of the names of evil is the accuser of the believer. He reads your own record back to you — the real failures, the actual sin, the thing you would pay money to undo, and even the scorn some people have about you that is based on false testimonies and rumors. And, you get reminded of these things — from my experience — either at the exact moment or early on, when you decide to press forward without the guilt, shame and blame from your past.
Everything the accuser and his useful idiots — evildoers — have on you and pretend to have on you was already paid for. If Christ has made you His own, God settled the account at the cross and it is finished. Forever.
Maturing in our faith means pressing on — learning, improving, growing and not getting distracted or deterred by the rumors and regurgitation of past mistakes and rumors.
Now, if there is perpetual sin in certain areas, stop sugarcoating it and call it what it is: sin. Confess it, repent — seeing sin as sin and deciding to agree with God that there is a better, Godly way to view it and respond to the temptations to do it more.
Then, stop asking God to bless something you are living in rebellion against. Forgetting what is behind covers what has been confessed and paid for. It does not cover what we are still doing and failing to call sin.
Two things it changes:
1) It changes what we do with the past. We cannot delete what is archived about us. What we decide is whether we confess and repent and then move forward with a clean slate.
2) It changes our pace. Today, my pastor used the picture of a runner sprinting out of the gate — everything spent in the beginning of the race, nothing left for the full race. That is how a lot of us handle spiritual growth: hard and fast for a stretch, then done. The instruction is to press on in the power of Christ, and that power does not run out.
Application
Name the one thing the accuser brings up on you most often. When you are alone, write it down and say it out loud. If it is unconfessed, confess it to God today, and to the person you wronged if there is one, and repent by asking God to show you how God sees it and asking for God's provision of the power and wisdom to see it that way for yourself — and correct your thinking and behavior on the topic.
If it is already confessed, or if it's a falsity or rumor about you that keeps getting regurgitated — God closed that and you don't have to give power to people who pick it back up to keep you stuck.
Do one thing this afternoon that moves you forward: read a chapter of Scripture, make a phone call you have been putting off, give an apology you owe.
Prayer
Father, we have things in our past that we know You forgave and we keep pulling them back out anyway. We have things that aren't true that people try to pull into the present to sully, shame and sideline us. Help us to leave all of it with You. Where we are still holding sin and calling it something else, give us the honesty to call it what it is, confess it and turn from it. Thank You that Christ made us Your own and that the price is already paid. Give us the strength to press on today in Your power. Amen.
