Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on. Philippians 3:13-14
One of satan's strongest weapons against Christians is to bring up our past failures and embarrassments to discourage us and tell us that we can't go on for Christ. The devil wants to pile up the rubbish and ruins from our past to block our progress.
Nehemiah and his fellow Jews who went back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city's walls encountered mounds of rubble and other debris from the city's destruction. The fourth chapter of Nehemiah describes the physical rubbish the workers faced, but the principle remains the same in the spiritual world.
The debris they were working around was a reminder of past failures and defeats for Jerusalem.
But Nehemiah was there to claim victory, not moan over the past. And many times we must do as Nehemiah did...