Thought for Today: “You Can’t Saw Sawdust”

You can’t saw sawdust; it’s already been sawed. You can’t change the past, so quit dwelling on it. Instead start dwelling upon Christ and the future He has for your life.

The Apostle Paul had a past, one that he couldn’t change. In his zealousness for the Law of Moses and the Jewish faith, he persecuted believers, beating some, putting others in prison, and also participated in the deaths of some.

Of Stephen it says, “They cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul (later Paul).” (Acts 7:58)

But Paul knew he couldn’t undo what had been done. He couldn’t resaw sawdust. And so he said, “I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

Yes, we need to learn from the past, but also leave the past behind us so that we can move forward into God’s call upon our lives.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)