Weather report from heaven: Sunny and bright with an abundance of light, and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Scripture- “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”- Philippians 3:12-14
Insight: God challenged me the other day when I was praying to let go of the past completely, and to press on, to move forward towards what He is calling me to. There has been lots of confusion on my part about exactly what that is, however He told me to simply trust Him, and to let go of the past because most of it hinders my growth. It is easy to get stuck when you’re living too much in the past. The scars of our past can serve as great teachers and reminders of valuable lessons learned or they can smother us all over again in a never ending loop of guilt , shame, agony, despair and regret. So, as Paul encourages us in Philippians 3:12-14 above, we must have a mindset to press forward. We must have a goal in front of us that keeps us moving forward, straining towards it. So the most important question that we can ask is what is that goal in your life?
From a Biblical sense, I have come to the conclusion that we must live fearless lives in the pursuit of Jesus, and knowing and seeking Him in all we do. Everything else is 2nd best, a counterfeit pursuit compared with knowing the One who holds the key to Eternal Treasure. Our lives can get bogged down with problems in the here and now, so we must change our focus in order to truly be set free. We have to look ahead to what is coming, that which our past will have no impact on. We must change our focus from the media driven madness in which we are living or we will forever be stuck in bondage to despair. Hebrews 12:1-3 gives us advice about how to change our focus, and to stay focused on the long term purpose for which we were created: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” We have a future hope in the heavenly realms that far outweighs the temporary hopelessness we are all experiencing on the earth right now. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says it this way: “so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” We have a future glory that will be revealed that is worth pressing into, moving forwards towards as we learn to leave behind all the luggage and broken promises and hopes from our past. 1 John 3:2 says “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” That is a goal worthy of our focus and so we press forward towards that day when all things that we’ve encountered in our life will seem like a dream, and the real living will begin.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, help us to fix our eyes on you, as Hebrews 12:2 exhorts us to. We must remove and eliminate everything that causes our soul to be weighed down by fear and live fearless lives in pursuit of You. Amen!
0 Comments