KEEP FIXED ON JESUS AND DON’T BE DISTRACTED!

KEEP FIXED ON JESUS AND DON’T BE DISTRACTED!

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. —Philippians 3:13-25

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. —Philippians 3:20-21

            Is the one thing that Paul did the one thing you are doing?  That one thing was “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Is that what you and I are doing?  What is done is done.  The past is the past.  Don’t be in bondage to it.  Repent from what you need to repent from and move on.  Learn from it, but don’t live in it.  Live for the now as you press on to that upward call, remembering that

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”  The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” —Lamentations 3:22-26

            This is how the mature are to think.  Are you and I thinking like this?  Let us be “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.”  When running the race marked out for us, we don’t focus on what we have already run, with all the failures, faults and sin.  No, we learn from them for the race presently we are running and for the race ahead, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2).

            Let us always be mindful that “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”  Is that our focus?  Are you and I looking forward to seeing Jesus and having “our lowly body to be like his glorious body.”  How exciting— “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (I John 3:2-3).  So let us keep pressing onward in the high calling He has called us to.  Yes, Dear Father, may this be so by the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Your Son Jesus and may this be all for Your honor and glory! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDYbg24P208