His Heart, My Home

As we move towards the end of one year and the beginning of another, we need to pause briefly and assess where we are in our relationship with the Lord, and in fulfilling our calling.

● Are our priorities in order? Our first priority should always be to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And our second priority should be to love others as we love ourselves. (Matthew 22:37)

My Mom had a simple, yet profound view of this scriptural principle. She would say, “Joey, love God and love people. They are the only two things that are eternal in this world.” So wise. So true!

● Are we running our life-race with our focus on the finish line where Jesus is waiting?

” ¹ As for us, we have all of these great witnesses  who encircle  us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us  and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us. ² We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because His heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be His,  He endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation,  and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!” (Hebrews 12:1,2 , The Passion Translation)

Now let’s look more closely at how we are to run our race with “passion and determination”.

Philippians 3:7-12 – Notice the cry of Paul’s heart in verse 10… “that I may know Him!” It had been almost 30 years since the apostle Paul had encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, yet his passion to know the Lord burned brighter than ever in his heart! Paul had his priorities in order! Paul’s heart was aflame with passion for his Lord. He goes on to say:

Philippians 3:13,14 – ¹³ “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, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

The Greek word translated as “one thing” in verse 13 is the word “hen”. It is used to describe the result of two things being united.

BOTH of these things must take place simultaneously if we are going to successfully complete our race:

● We must FORGET those things which are BEHIND.

● AND we must REACH FORWARD to those things which are AHEAD.

Let’s look at each of these concepts:

FORGETTING
They say that elephants never forget. And that may be true, but their inability to let go of the past can become a chain that holds them in captivity.

Let me explain. When circus elephants are small, their trainers chain them to a stake driven into the ground. The chain and stake keeps the elephant confined to one area. The baby elephant just doesn’t have the strength to pull up the stake, so it is held captive.

Day after day, as the animal reaches maturity it is chained to that same stake. A fully grown elephant, weighing 4 to 5 tons, could easily uproot the stake, but it never even tries. It is held captive, not by the chain and stake, but by its memory of the past.

Sad! Especially when we realize how cunningly the devil entraps and enslaves Christians in exactly the same way. The memory of the past becomes our chain and stake.

Satan’s device is an effective weapon because even though it’s impossible for us to know the future, we know everything about our past.

So the devil gets us looking back at every mistake, every sin, and every failure from our past.

Would you agree that it would be impossible to drive your car in reverse down the Interstate Highway while looking in the rear-view mirror?

It’s also impossible to successfully run our life-race if we are constantly focused on what is behind us.

Do you remember what Jesus commanded the devil to do, when he spoke through Peter to challenge Jesus’ destiny as our Savior? He said, “Get BEHIND ME, satan…” (Matthew 16:23)

Jesus refused to let the devil get between Him and His destiny. He ran His race, undaunted,
unhindered, unafraid, and undefeated, always moving forward, and always motivated by the joy of knowing that His suffering would result in our salvation.

How can we break the chains of our past? How can we escape the prison of our failures? And, just as important, how can we resist and overcome the temptation to build a monument to our past accomplishments and successes? How can we forget? How can we move on? By doing exactly what Paul, the ex-persecutor, ex-torturer,
ex-murderer of Christians, (and now great apostle) did.

Here is the answer in Paul’s own words:
¹³ “…I have adopted one rule — ¹⁴ I turn my back on the past, and focus on one clear objective: the fulfillment of my calling by God through Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:13,14, Ben Campbell Johnson Translation)

It is possible for us to turn our backs on the past because God has already done exactly that. He’s not lurking in our past, looking for skeletons in our closet, accusations against us, or digging up our sins and failures.

God has forever abandoned the grave of our past, and His Spirit lives in us, empowering us to say, “Get behind me, satan. I have no past, and you have no future!”

Let’s look at what God said about our past in these two powerful verses:.

” I will erase their sins and wicked acts out of my memory as though they had never existed.”
(Hebrews 10:17, The Voice Translation)

God, who knows absolutely everything has chosen to totally erase our mistakes, sins, and failures from His memory! What a merciful, loving Father He is!

” You see, God takes all our crimes – our seemingly inexhaustible sins, and removes them. As far as the east is from the west, He removes them from us.” (Psalm 103:12, The Voice)

There’s a reason God said He would remove our sins “as far as the east is from the west”, and not “as far as the north is from the south.”

Let’s imagine a globe representing the earth. Now, let’s start at the north pole traveling south. On and on we go for about 12,500 miles, all the way to the south pole. But as we continue our journey past the south pole, we are no longer traveling south, but north. Fact: The measurable distance from north to south, or south to north on our planet is 12,500 miles.

Now let’s pick a spot on the globe near the equator. How about Nairobi, Kenya in East Africa? We start our imaginary trip going east from Nairobi. After circling the globe for 25,000 miles, we still are traveling eastward if we continue past our starting point. No matter how many times we circle the earth, our direction of travel will still be east, never west, if we do not change course. The distance from east to west, or west to east, is immeasurable! And that’s exactly how far God has removed our sins from us… an immeasurable distance!

REACHING AHEAD
The Greek word translated as “reaching” in Philippians 3:14 pictures a runner in a foot-race running with all his might to cross the finish line.

It means “to stretch and strain every muscle, tendon, and fiber, in supreme effort.”

We’ve all seen this in many different sports: track and field events, rowing, cycling, and swimming. The closer the athlete is to the finish line, the greater the effort to cross it and claim the prize!

Paul said he was “straining every nerve for that which lies in front…” (TCNT)

Today, we call this, “leaving it all on the field.”
It’s more than a casual commitment. It’s an iron-clad, rock-solid covenant commitment to give our all for the One who gave His utmost for us!

It’s about focus and faith!

Paul said: “I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this, however I do have one compel-
ling focus: I forget all of the past, as I fasten my heart to the future instead.”
(Philippians 3:13, Passion Translation)

Let’s ask Holy Spirit to help us focus on the finish line, ignoring every distraction and hindrance as we run. Let’s turn our backs on 2024, regardless of whether it was good, bad, or ugly.

And let’s finish this leg of the race with a strong “kick”. Let’s burst into 2025 with “passion and determination” as we burn up the track running into His presence!