Constantly we find ourselves slipping into bitterness and apathy and gloom as we reflect on them ( past disappointments and present heartbreaks) which we frequently do. The attitude we show to the world is a sort of dried up stoicism, miles removed from the “unspeakable joy” which Peter wrote about ( I Peter 1:8). “Poor souls, “ our friends say of us, “how they’ve suffered.” And that is just what we feel about ourselves !
But these private mock heroics have no place at all in the minds of those who really know God. They never brood on might – have – beens ; they never think of the things they have missed, only of what they have gained.
“ But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ, “ wrote Paul. “ What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him… I want to know Christ ( Philippians 3:7-10). When Paul says he counts the things he lost rubbish, or “dung” ( KJV), he means not merely that he does not think of them as having any value, but also that he does not live with them constantly in his mind: what normal person spends his time nostalgically dreaming of manure ? Yet this, in effect, is what many of us do. It shows how little we have in the way of true knowledge of God.
( page 25 Knowing God J.I. Packer)
