Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song and lyrics from the group Selah singing … Press On … poignantly singing of how we must - and can - press on, leaving the past behind us, to seek “the prize” of our calling in Christ.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Philippians 3:13-14 [NLT] … 13 …, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
… God, thru Paul, exhorts us to press on toward our calling in Christ.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Philippians 3:7-14 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… As a more mature Christian Paul learned and exhorts us, to let our past go and to move forward in/with Christ.
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Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NIV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God thru Solomon charges us to trust in Him to move on in life - NO MATTER WHAT we face.
Reference Passage : … Romans 8:28 [NIV] … 28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
… With this truth we realize that all our circumstances, … past, present, and future … help us to move on in life.
Reference Passage : … 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 [NIV] … USE THIS LINK …
… When we believe - and realize - that God’s grace is sufficient for us, no matter what our burden might be - we can move in to realize the calling we have in Christ.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Adam Holz, uses a reference to a popular movie to illustrate how we must leave our past monsters and move on in Christ’s calling. And the ODB author wrote: “Must. Go. Faster.” That’s what Dr. Ian Malcolm, played by Jeff Goldblum, says in an iconic scene from the 1993 movie Jurassic Park as he and two other characters flee in a Jeep from a rampaging tyrannosaurus. When the driver looks in the rearview mirror, he sees the raging reptile’s jaw—right above the words: “OBJECTS IN MIRROR MAY BE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.” [See photo]
The scene is a masterful combination of intensity and grim humor. But sometimes the “monsters” from our past feel like they’ll never stop pursuing us. We look in the “mirror” of our lives and see mistakes looming right there, threatening to consume us with guilt or shame.
Tho not a betting man, I would almost wager that most - if not all - of us have monsters from our past in our rear view mirrors which, if we let them, can keep us from moving forward the way God would have us with His grace to propel us forward toward His purposes (see reference passages).
The Apostle Paul, reflecting on his life as Saul of Tarsus, certainly had a lot of such “monsters.” However, as we read in the highlight passage, he learned - and exhorted his fellow Christians - to “PRESS ON” toward the goal and prize to which God called him. We have a calling in Christ (see Acts 1:8 and Matthew 28:19-20 on your own); and we simply must not let the monsters in our rear-view mirror hold us back.
So, as Selah sings, and Jeff Goldblum, says, we “must go … faster,” leaving the monsters behind us and pressing on toward the calling which is ours in Christ.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for calling us to “press on” to fulfill Your calling.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me to press on and leave the “monsters” in our rear-view mirror. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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