Moving Forward in the New Year

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:8-14

This is New Year’s day.  It marks the beginning of a new year.  Thinking about a new year is a wonderful thing.  2015 is a blank slate – clean and ready for us do with it all that we can and will.  I always like to think of these verses to start a new year.  We need to forget some things that are behind and we need to press forward to things that are in front of us.  We need to let go of our failures and successes from previous years and strive toward new successes in this year.

Happy New Year to all who may read this and may the coming year bring you closer to our Lord Jesus Christ!

Onward! Encouragement For the New Year

…this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13b-14

I love the New Years holiday.  And the thing I love about the New Year is also one of the things I love about the Christian life.  You keep going.  And you keep going forward.

If you had a bad year last year, New Years is a chance to start out strong and have a better year than you did last year.  If you had a great year last year, you can keep it going and have an even better year this year.  I once heard a man of God say that “the Christian life is a life of new beginnings.”  And I think that is true.  If you failed in your Christian walk yesterday, or last year, confess it to the Lord.  Accept His forgiveness and move forward for Him.  Ask Him to help you do better today or this year.

Paul says here in Philippians that he is “forgetting those things which are behind.”  That is what we have to do.  If we have failed, we forget it and move forward for the Lord.  If we have succeeded, we forget it and move forward for the Lord.  If we constantly dwell on our past failures, we will be constantly defeated by them and we will not move forward for Him.  If we constantly dwell on our successes, we become proud and complacent and we will not move forward for Him.  There is a place for remembering our successes and failures, but there is no place for dwelling on them.  Our failures keep us humble and remind us of His mercy.  Our successes keep us working and remind us of His grace.  But we are supposed to keep moving forward, no matter where we are.

In verse 14, Paul tells us that He is pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God.  He is pressing forward.  That is what we need to do in this coming year.  Last year is over.  We no longer have last year.  We have this year.  Let’s make it the best one we have had.  Let’s allow the Lord to make this year what He wants to make it in our lives.

Have a wonderful New Year!  Onward for the Lord!

…In With the New

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I many apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14

We looked the other day at these verses and pointed out how that Paul said that he was going to forget those things which were behind and reach forward to those things before him.  No matter how our years went last year, it’s a new year now.  It’s time to leave those things behind and reach forward.

Paul says that he is pressing “toward the mark for the prize…”  He is forgetting those things which are behind in order to better reach forward.  You can’t run a race and “press toward a mark” while looking backward.  It is the same for us in our Christian lives.  If we are trying to run forward while looking back (at our successes and/or failures), we are going to be slowed down.  We are going to be more prone to stumble and fall.  We are going to have a hard time focusing.  If we want to move forward, we are going to have to look forward.

No matter what time of year it is, we need to be pressing forward.  We need to be improving.  In our Christian lives, we do not stand still.  Either we are pressing toward the mark or we are “sliding back.”  Let us bring in the new year resolving to, like Paul, press toward the mark.  Let us pray that this would be our best year ever.

Out With the Old

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before…

Philippians 3:12-13

I love New Years.  I enjoy New Years Eve and looking back at the previous year.  I especially enjoy look forward to the New Year.  On this, the last day of the year, it is good for us to look back over the last year.  It is important to take an honest look – seeing both our successes and our failures.  We begin a new year with high expectations.  We fulfill some of those expectations and we fail in some of them.  We can thank the Lord for helping us in the successes and we can ask Him for forgiveness and help in the failures.

In these verses, Paul tells us that he is “forgetting those things which are behind…”  He is letting go of the things in the past.  In the previous verses, he details some successes and some failures.  He is letting them all go.  And he is letting them go so that he can devote everything he has to “reaching forth unto those things which are before.”  It’s hard to reach for anything if your hand are full holding all of yesterday’s triumphs and problems.  If we are weighted down with baggage, we are not going to be able to run our race efficiently.  Paul knew this and that is why he felt the need to forget those things which are behind.

Let’s take a little time today to look back at the past year.  And then it will be time to start thinking about the New Year.  It will be time to start pressing forward!

I hope everyone who reads this has a happy New Year in which you draw closer to the Lord than you have every been!

Failing the Test of Prosperity

As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.

Hosea 4:7

…I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Philippians 4:11

The book of Hosea is book of judgment in which God is telling His people both that He is going to judge them and why He is going to judge them.  We looked at one of the reasons yesterday: they “had no knowledge.”  They had rejected Him and had rejected the knowledge of Him.  Of course rejecting Him will bring judgment.  But why had they rejected the knowledge of Him?  I think this verse gives us an idea.

“As they were increased, so they sinned against me…”

The Israelites failed the test of prosperity.  They were God’s chosen people.  God had helped them, blessed them, brought them out of Egypt, gave them their own land flowing with milk and honey, fought their battles for them, drove out their enemies before them, fed and clothed them in the wilderness, and made them into a great nation.  What more could He have given them or done for them?

They had everything.  But in the midst of all of that prosperity and increase, they started to forget the God Who gave them everything.  Their forgetting God led to refusing and rejecting Him, which led to ever increasing sinning, which ultimately led to their destruction.  Sometimes it is easier to trust the Lord and follow Him when you don’t have anything than it is when you have seemingly everything.  The church of the Laodiceans the book of the Revelation had this problem.  They thought that they were “rich and increased with goods” and that they had “need of nothing.”  However, in all of their material increase, they also forgot God, Who found Himself on the outside. (Revelation 3:17-20)

In Philippians, Paul tells us that he had learned “both how to be abased”  and “how to abound.”  That is a lesson that many of us (especially Americans) need to learn.  There is much wisdom in the words of Proverbs 30:8b:

“…give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me”

Pressing Forward

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13-14

I’m sure that you have been bombarded with advertisements in the past week or two about losing weight in the New Year, or starting an exercise program in the New Year, or maybe even trying to be a better person in the New Year.  Those advertisements all have the particular product or service that you “need” to become a “new you.”  But, truthfully, there is only One Who can create a “new you.”  And that One is Jesus Christ.

In these verses, Paul tells us that he is going to forget the things that are behind (good or bad) and that he is going to reach forward and press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God.  That is the attitude that we need to maintain.  As we enter a new year, there are many things that we need to “forget”; we need to leave them behind.

We need to leave our failures behind.  When we sin and fail the Lord, we need to confess it, get it right and press forward.  We should not let yesterday’s sin defeat us all over again today.  On the other hand, sometimes we need to leave our successes behind.  Sometimes we have a tendency to dwell on some victory in our Christian life from ten years ago.  While success is a wonderful thing, we can not allow it to lull us into a false sense of security. 

Wherever we may find ourselves on this day, we know that we need to forget those things which are behind and we know that we need to press forward for Him!

Now or Later

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:10-11

I was reading this passage in Philippians (which happens to be one of my favorite books of the Bible) and a simple thought came to me.  This post will not be a long one, but my hope and prayer is that it will cause us to think about something. 

These verses tell us that “every” knee should bow to the Lord and that “every” tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  And these things should be done to the “glory of God the Father”.  How are we doing on those three things?

Are we “bowing our knee” to His will in our lives?

Are we “confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord” with our tongues?

And are we doing it all “to the glory of God the Father”?

To me, that seems like a microcosm of the entire Christian life: following Him, speaking of Him and doing it all for His glory.

Magnifying Him

According to my earnest expectation, and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.

Philippians 1:20

This is a thought that was given at church a while back and one that I had never thought of.  “…So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body.”  Christ should be magnified in all of our bodies and in all of our lives.  That really should be what the entire Christian life is about- magnifying Him.  I would, of course, agree with that statement, but I had never really given much thought to what it really means.

To magnify something does not mean to make the object larger- the object of magnification stays the same size it always was. When we magnify Christ, we aren’t making Him “bigger” or more powerful; He is already all-powerful.  Magnifying something simply makes it easier to see.  To magnify Christ in our lives means to make Him easier to see.  When we aren’t living for Him and walking with Him, we are minimizing Him in our lives and making harder for others to see Him in us.  When someone looks at us, they should immediate see Christ.  We should magnify Him to the point that people see Him and not us.  John 3:30 says “He must increase, but I must decrease”.  Let us magnify Him so that others can easily see Him through us!