Winning Out in the Long Run

"With this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Phillipians 3:14
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The achievement of your goal is assured the moment you commit yourself to it. Mack R. Douglas

The Apostle Paul is the author of a letter he wrote to the Phillipians and also wrote this verse about "looking forward and moving upward". If Paul focused his life on the past, the things he did before he was saved, it would have incapacitated him for the present work. Paul was persecuting Christians, dragging them out of their homes, arresting them, even consenting to their death, And I’m sure that there were things even after he was saved that occurred that he wish didn’t happen and yet he was able to let them go because his eyes were focused on what the Lord has for him here and now!
There are many of us who are spiritually unable to move forward because they live in the past. I know this personally because I was guilty of this several years. How do we let ourselves become "unable" to move forward? We hold onto grudges, sins, bitterness, tragedies of the past, refusing to let them go. Some of us try to live in the past making it into some kind of utopia and that too can paralyze us from the present work that God wants to do. Paul, in Galatians 4:9 rebukes them by saying, "But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?" Satan's powerful game to play is for us to "focus on the past instead of what we can do today". Difficult habit to get out of but it can be done :-)

Then what should we do? Paul tells us that we are to be "reaching forward" which is a word that speaks of stretching. Think of it like this, a muscle that is stretched to its limit, like that of a rur who is stretching, straining to reach the finish line. At first we get tired, sore, think of the long road ahead. But before no time, we are moving forward Instead of reaching back we are running toward the goals that God has called us to do.We will be living for today and seeing what God is going to do.

Father God - Thank you so much for the chance to move forward and have hope for the future - all through Your strength. If we slip back and think about past hurts, remind us to call on Your Name and "live for today, working for tomorrow" instilling hope for our future. Thank you for the chance to move forward and be effective in our lives and for You each and every day. Amen