The sermon today, by Bishop E. Long at New Birth, was based on Philippians 3:13-. This is the Scripture that I have been meditating on for over a month. God put it on my heart, and I didn't fully understand what He was telling me until today...
Philippians 3:13-"Brothers, 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, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained."
I must forget those things which are behind me, let go of the hardships that I'm facing, I may be in the hole - economically and in my mind - but don't dwell on the past or on my failures, or even triumphs, or how I got into the hole (for instance Paul was in prison when he wrote this), or on sins I have committed. Rather I would want to be found straining to what is ahead of me.
Forget does not mean to fail to remember, but the past does not control me or pain me. Such as those who have hurt me in the past, I will not hold their sins against them -
"18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,"
Break the power of the past, by living in the future... don't give the past power, don't give the past (ex's) power to continue to harm me. God has plans for me to prosper me and not to harm me. God has set me free, let go of yesterday. Live in what God has planned for me, not yesterday. God wants to see me straining forward.
ISAIAH - the yoke shall be destroyed by the anointing... You can't let go of something unless you are reaching for something. Reach forward and let go of the past.
PRESS - what will make me whole is knowing, living in what He told me to do.
Hebrew 12:1-3
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. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
With God all things are possible...One thing I do forgetting those things that are behind me, and I am going to stretch toward those things before. It's not that I am all that I should be, but I am stretching and pressing to what God has called me to be. I see myself in peace and joy, my children serving God, I see myself with all the things I lost, with all that God has planned for me to be. Jesus said, 'forgive them for they know not what they do', He was saying I'm looking to the future. He who has begun a good work in me, He shall complete it.
I see myself with all that God has purposed me to be...