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Day 19 of 31 Days of Chasing THE Light

Forward Light



“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” ~Phil. 3:13-14 ESV




I don’t know about you but I can live in the past sometimes. I can start to define who I am by my past mistakes. But I don’t want to live in the past. I want to move forward because I am not defined by my past. He doesn’t see me as a failure – even if I feel like I am. But, we are all failures if we are honest. 

This social media world we live in today can make me feel like a big failure.  Especially if I start to compare myself with everyone’s “highlighted reel.” Steven Furtick says, “The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”

I didn’t finish college. I dropped out after my 2nd year. Fear, for the most part, is why I didn’t finish. I let fear overtake me and thought that I couldn’t handle it. I got in with the wrong crowd and was a scared teenager. So, I dropped out because I didn’t think I could recover from my mistakes and went home…where I felt safe. 


I could focus on dropping out and think of myself as a failure or I could focus on the fact that by leaving college it led me to Blacksburg, Va – to my husband. It led me to nursing school. It led me to having two beautiful children. To truly finding Jesus. To my photography/blog.  To being thankful and grateful for everything in my life today. That is falling forward.

Focusing on what I don’t like about my past or my mistakes means I am lost. Lost in the present and stuck in the past. It means I have taken my eyes off of Jesus and turned around. Sure, we can learn from our past…but to stay there does nobody any good. God doesn’t remind us of our mistakes so why do we? I must choose to look at myself through the lens of Jesus. I must choose to lean into Him and focus on how He sees me.
 

Sometimes we have to go through the fire to get to the joy.
 
When I start to forget who I am and whose I am – I remember that in Christ, I am:

            *God’s Masterpiece (Eph. 2:10)
            * Forgiven (Eph. 1:7)
            *A new creature (2 Cor. 5:17)
            * Strong in the Lord (Eph. 6:10)
            *Accepted in Christ (Eph. 1:6)
            * Loved with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3)
            * Overtaken with blessings (Deut. 28:2)

Today, when we are tempted to look back…root down into His promises so that we can rise up to His grace. Let’s move forward shinning our light knowing whose we are.
 

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