Get Rid of the Clutter From the Past

I just returned home from a five-day trip up to the Minneapolis area where my mother-in-law was moved from her apartment to assisted living.  It was great to see people up there but it is so nice to be home again.

It is amazing how much a small apartment can hold.  Books, pictures, souvenirs, pots, pans, magazines, clothes, lamps, and thousands of other things were all packed up and taken away.  The apartment was well cared for and not messy or cluttered, but there was still so much of it.

This got me thinking of the clutter in my life.  Oh, I do have clutter, especially on my computer desk, but I mean clutter in my spiritual life.  How many things from my past do I store away in my memory and bring out to view later?  Wrongs which were done to me by others as far back as elementary school I bring to memory and I still feel the pain.  I think of great successes I performed and bring to mind just to feel that pride again when I should be taking joy in successes of today.  Perhaps I need to get off my rear end and make those successes happen instead of glorying in the past?

Those things are all clutter.  Things which should not be brought out today but placed in the past and left there.  Today is a new day where God will lead and victories will be won.  Past victories, defeats, and pains are to be given over to God and not used to control us today.

"... 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 called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13b-14