15 June 2011

JOURNEY 201¦1 ‘destination … not location’

Good Morning!
I pray that as we approach the mid-point of the year that your journey is going well. As I look at my own journey, it has taken a few turns that were not entirely expected. However, I will not allow that to discourage me or get me off focus of what the LORD has called me to do and who He has purposed me to become.

Dealing with homelessness, it is easy to get focused on my present situation and location in life and to lose sight of the destination. It is a fight to stay out of the ‘now’ and keep my mind fixed on heavenly realities and the ‘eternal’. Yet it is a fight that I will keep fighting with every bit of strength in me. And when that strength is depleted, I take comfort in His Words of encouragement in II Corinthians 12:9: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’

Understand that the journey may take you places that you had not planned. There will be things that occur that were not on the itinerary – at least not the itinerary that you could see. Yet, as believers, we must keep traveling the road and keep the destination at the forefront of our mind. 

We must determine like Paul to be forward-focused at all times: ‘I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 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, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’ Philippians 3:12-14

Part of our focus is fighting the good fight of faith and understanding that this is a spiritual battle as much as it is a spiritual journey!

Yet, it is not the present situation or location that matters … but the destination!

‘Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…’ II Corinthians 10:3-6

Fix your mind ...

‘… whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.’ Philippians 4:8 

Focus on the destination!

Keep moving forward, no matter what comes your way. We have saints who have gone before us, cheering us on. We have believers and non-believers who are walking beside us, drawing perspective and strength from our ability to stay God-focused and peaceful in the midst of the storms. We also have those who will come after us who will benefit from our ability to have traveled our journey successfully. And we have this confidence, that He who began this good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1:6). The LORD God Almighty wants us to achieve all that He has set before us even more than we want it.

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—He could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now He's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility He plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! Hebrews 12:1-3 MSG

Have a Blessed Week!

No comments:

Post a Comment