“To truly know him meant letting go of everything from my past and throwing all my boasting on the garbage heap. It’s all like a pile of manure to me now, so that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embrace him as Lord in all of his greatness.” Philippians 3:8 TPT
When Paul wrote Philippians 3:8 he did not hold back. He looked at his high status pedigree and his darkest mistakes then labeled them exactly what they were: manure. In most settings we try to hide the mess. We bury the parts of our story that smell like failure. Paul did the opposite. He understood that manure is the best fuel for growth. Your past is not meant to define your identity. It is meant to be the fertilizer that propels you toward Christ.
There is a trap we all fall into. We repent and move forward but then in a moment of weakness we start picking through the trash again. Paul gives some tough love in
Galatians 2:18:
If I build again the things which I destroyed I prove myself a transgressor.
Think about that. If you spent years tearing down an old life of bitterness or ego why would you ever put the bricks back together? It is like a dog going back to its own vomit. That is a graphic image because it shows how backward it is to return to things you already outgrew. We become sinners when we try to resurrect the person Christ already buried.
Think of your past like an old picture in a frame. When you look at it you might see a version of yourself you barely recognize. That photo is a pictorial representation of a life you no longer live. The photo stays the same but you have grown.
You do not look at an old picture of yourself as a child and try to crawl back into a crib. You look at it to see the progress. Your past is a reference point and not a residence. It stays there to remind you of the investment God made in you. It shows the sheer amount of work He did to bring you to this moment.
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