January 2025
Happy New Year
Praise The Lord! We are ushering in a new year, 2025! Beginnings are always great times to evaluate where you have been and where you are going. It is a time to assess your current state of being. Most of all it is a time to learn from your mistakes and use that knowledge to aspire for more. I believe this is what Paul had in mind when he said, “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.”

Typically, forgetting is considered a bad thing. To forget is to not remember some valuable information that you might need in a particular situation. But Paul is using it to mean how things from the past can inhibit you, deflate you, or even discourage you about what is ahead. Past mistakes, past failures, and even trauma can dampen your optimism and expectation for what is ahead.
God gave us memory so that as we recall his goodness, we will be inspired to appreciate and praise Him for our lives. However, sometimes the way we remember things can have the opposite effect and literally intimidate us as we go forward. Paul is saying process things that happen in the past in a way where you don’t think of anything from the past as limiting you from being motivated about all that God has for you now. To press you must forget. To move forward you must be detangled from the past. To enter you must leave. To arrive you must have departed.
This will be the best year of your life. Decide that you are going to leave the baggage of the past and start fresh with all God is going to do in your life now.