ADVANCING!

Philippians 3:13-14 NLT … 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.

Nobody likes going backwards because there is an instinctive need within us to go forward in life - to advance and that’s what Paul was doing. He recognised he was running a race, he was advancing and we’re called to do the same in our Christian life.😊

God loves babies but He wants to see us all grow up in the faith. He wants us to press on, press through because God is helping us become who He made us to be. It makes no difference what age we are, God wants our relationship with Him to deepen, to know about His love, about walking in faith and victory; to go from the milk of the Word to the meat.

Sometimes it’s tough, but God is on the inside of us and He is growing us up to endure, to remember we stand on a firm foundation, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27) 

Paul tells us how to run a race successfully in Hebrews 12:1  …let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. God tells us to let go of the baggage, the worries or regrets, the guilt or shame we may have carried for decades, to allow Jesus to take it all, including our sin, so we can win our race.😊

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 has plans for us all to advance into and even when we may feel stuck, the Holy Spirit will help us move forward one step at a time and we will fulfil whatever God has for each one of us. Amen.

Have a blessed weekend.😊x

Photo by Hannah Coleman on Unsplash

TIME FOR A WASH

Ephesians 5:25-27 NIV …just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Yesterday I cleaned our upstairs windows which is difficult as I had to hang right out the window, almost upside down to reach the sills! Talk about being a contortionist! Whoever designed them didn’t have someone my small size in mind!😊 When I’d finished though I felt so pleased with myself and it made me think sometimes our inner windows could do with a wash as well!

We can become all muzzied up, like my windows were, by the things that happen and by listening to the world’s thoughts and ways. We need to have a wash in God’s word to remind ourselves of who we really are and allow God’s thoughts and ways, which we know are far higher, to wash us clean and lift us up to remember we’re above only and not beneath, we’re seated in heavenly places (Eph.2:6).

Isaiah 49:31 NIV but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.

It reminded me of the story of the farmer who hatched an egg which turned out to be an eagle but kept it with his turkeys in a coup where it learned to scratch around and gobble all day because it didn’t know it was an eagle and could fly! Someone came by, realised what it was and took it up into the mountains but it didn’t know what to do at first because it still thought like a turkey! After several wing flappings it suddenly caught the wind and up it flew into the thermals to enjoy the life it was designed for.😊

That’s what God wants for each one of us; to let His word wash us clean on the inside so we remember we weren’t designed to scratch around with the world but we’re a child of God who can learn to soar like eagles. 

So let’s wash ourselves with God’s word and let the light of God remind us of who we really are, seated in heavenly places with Him, filled with the resurrection life that raised Jesus from the dead, and allow Him to lift us up above the things that try to pull us down, out of the turkey coup, to soar in God’s thermal overcoming atmosphere, with a cleansed window of perspective. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by Anton on Unsplash