Looking and moving ahead.

We all have goals and dreams, and we work hard to achieve and fulfill them.

As Christians, our main goal should be imitating Christ. Paul provides some advice to help us.

In Philippians 3, Paul writes, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection, but I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, 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. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the Heavenly prize for which God through Christ Jesus is calling us.”

We are encouraged to narrow our focus in two ways.

Forgetting what is behind.

This may be hard for us to do. We cannot allow the past to absorb and control our present and future.

• We cannot get hung up on what we have already achieved. There’s still more work for us to do.
• We cannot allow mistakes we have made to beat us down. In his grace, the Lord will help us move beyond mistakes.

Looking ahead.

We should look ahead to what is coming; our concentration should be on the Heavenly prize awaiting us.

Keeping our focus on the future rather than the past will give us the motivation to press on. Our Heavenly prize awaits us at the finish line.