Pressing on

Philippians 3:13 NKJV Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 
 The only time it’s okay to focus on the past is to see how far God has brought us. You can’t expect to move forward while continuously looking backward. “Shut out all of your past except that which helps you weather your tomorrows”(William Osler). 

Perfect Will

Matthew 26:42 NKJVAgain, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”

Romans 12:2 NKJV

…that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV

He has made everything beautiful in its time. 

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be” (C. S. Lewis). It’s a difficult but necessary thing to accept the perfect plan God has for our lives. However, in the end He makes all things beautiful in His time.

The Mental Picture

Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV 

Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets…

The human mind is an incredible thing. However, it has its limitations. “Writing something down once or more helps you memorize it. Next time you’re in need of whatever it is you wrote down, you’ll get a mental picture of what you wrote down, and your mind connects the missing pieces. It really works” (Life Hack).

Belief

Romans 1:21 NKJV because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

John 4:24 NKJV 

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

It’s not enough to just believe God exists. He is seeking those who not only think He exists but those who also *live* according to the knowledge. “He does not believe who does not live according to his belief” ~Thomas Fuller.

Faith over fear

Job 3:25 NKJV For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.

Jeremiah 42:16 NKJV : then it shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die”.

Come to think of it, both fear and faith are the evidence of things that have not yet happened, except it is the end that justifies the means. Thus, in the same way that good things can happen when we have faith, bad things can also happen the way we fear they would. It is therefore more prudent to channel one’s energy into faith over fear.

Healthy Boundaries

Genesis 13:14-15 NKJV And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.
Sometimes, relationships begin to lean towards toxicity when we hold on too tight to our loved ones that we don’t know where we end and the other person begins. Relationships are supposed to help you grow not limit you. Setting healthy boundaries in relationships is imperative to its success. “Love is like a butterfly. Hold it too tightly, you crush it”.

Ideas

1 Samuel 9:5-6 NKJV When they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, “Come, let us return, lest my father cease caring about the donkeys and become worried about us.” And he said to him, “Look now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man; all that he says surely comes to pass. So let us go there; perhaps he can show us the way that we should go.”

“It’s amazing what one can accomplish when one doesn’t know what one can’t do” – Jim Davis. Sometimes, actions that will put us on the path of our destinies come in the form of seemingly silly ideas. Don’t look down on your idea or quickly dismiss them. “The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”-Thomas Edison.

Xoxo

Shadows

Philippians 3:8 NKJV Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

“If you don’t see the greatness of God, then all the things that money can buy become very exciting. If you can’t see the sun, you will be impressed with a streetlight. If you’ve never felt thunder and lightening, you’ll be impressed with fireworks. And if you turn your back on the greatness and majesty of God, you’ll fall in love with a world of shadows and short-lived pleasures.”- John Piper.

Is there not a cause?

John 18:37 NKJV :Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

1 Samuel 17:29 NKJV : Is there not a cause?”

“If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.” It is good to have and know one’s life purpose. That way when challenged and confronted by the issues of life, it is what keeps you going. A life without purpose is a life without meaning.

Never lose hope

Psalms 27:13 NKJV I would have lost heart, unless I had believed

That I would see the goodness of the Lord

In the land of the living.

1 Corinthians 13:13 NKJV 

And now abide faith, hope, love,

Psalms 23:6 NKJV 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life;

A life without hope is not worth living. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”- Martin Luther King, Jr. No matter the present circumstance which may not be working the way you had hoped, still “when there is life there is hope (Theocritus)”.