THOSE WHO REFUSE to get bogged down in and anchored to the past are those who pursue the objectives of the future. People who do this are never petty. They are too involved in getting a job done to be preoccupied with yesterday’s hurts and today’s disappointments. Do you need some fresh encouragement to press on today? Read Paul’s testimony:
No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it [perfection], but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Perhaps you’re just now getting a moment to yourself, having packed the kids into the van and deposited each of them to school. Maybe you’re already feeling overwhelmed just thinking about all you need to accomplish before it’s suppertime. Some of you are feeling at the end of your rope, having stepped into your seventh month of a ministry and already realizing the honeymoon has ended. Some honeymoon, huh? Okay . . . enough of self-pity.
The older I get, the more I realize that determination is not something I muster for myself, but something God forms in me through His Holy Spirit. There’s no way in the world you or I could manage to remain faithful and determined against the obstacles we inevitably face: criticism, financial setbacks, enemies of the truth, powerful, unseen forces of evil, and growing older. Yet you can press on by focusing on the ultimate prize: and the prize is a person, Jesus Christ.
Let me encourage you to press on toward the goal of gaining more and more of Christ. Instead of allowing bitterness and fear and exhaustion to define you, renew your devotion to Him—pursue Him in the press of your experience. He will meet you at just the right time, with everything you need to press on. He’s waiting to meet with you.
Are you pursuing Him today? Put your focus on Him and not on your situation. You’ll soon feel the surge of a renewed determination welling up in your soul.
Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord . . . Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved. The full devotional can be purchased at tyndale.com.
Used with permission. All rights reserved.
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