Pursuing Christ in this life requires letting go of much of our past so as not to get distracted and lose sight of the prize. Forget where we’ve been and focus on where we’re going. Here are a few things we would do well to leave behind.

1. Glory days. Paul had been used of God in many mighty ways, but his focus wasn’t on the past. When we focus on past spiritual accomplishments we fail to see the opportunities before us.
2. Self. We need to leave self behind us. The old man’s world revolved around himself, the new man’s world revolves around Christ. Paul had a list of 7 spiritual credentials, but he counted them as loss for the sake of Christ.
3. Sins. If we allow the enemy to condemn us for past sins, we give up pursuing Christ. All of us have big sins in our past that are used to convince us we could never commune with Christ. For Paul, he was a persecutor of the church. We have to let those go because Christ has done away with them (Col 2:14).
4. Sins committed against us. Abuse, abandonment, neglect, rejection, betrayal, false accusation – sins committed against us can deceive us into thinking we are worthless and unloved. But Christ loved us and made us His own (Phil 3:12).