Keep your eye on the PRIZE!!!

I've shared with y'all before how much I love the Journey devotional magazine.  It is amazing how devotionals can speak to our heart about something going on in our life right now....when it was probably written months in advance of when we read it.  That's so how our precious God works, isn't it?!?!  I used to laugh with a friend of mine about how so many of the devotionals seemed to have our name in big, bold, neon lights above them....begging us to read something God had just for us!!!

As I read the scripture that went along with Saturday's devotional....I kept getting more and more excited as I read thru the passage in Ephesians.  Doesn't it excite you, too, when you read about Paul and how far God brought him....from persecuting the CHRISTian believers....to becoming such an amazing CHRISTian himself? 

WOW!!!  

Just another reminder of how God can use any and all of us!!! 

I imagine how Paul must have felt when he thought back on what his life was like before God struck him blind on the road to Damascus....you know, when he was "Saul"....before God changed his name to "Paul"!!!  

But, Paul kept his eye on the prize ahead....

....not on his past mistakes and failures!!!

I want to be like Paul in that respect.....to keep my eyes focused ahead....and not on the past.  Oh, I know that I can learn from the things I did wrong and grow from them in my faith in the Lord....because I'm a firm believer that EVERYTHING in our lives happen for a reason.  But....I cannot continually dwell on those things and allow Satan to use them against me....because he will certainly do that if we allow it!!

My prayer for us, Sweet Reader....is that we keep our focus on Jesus....and not allow Satan to throw our past in our faces. If we're still doing something that we know isn't right in the sight of God....then, we need to repent and ask for forgiveness and turn from that and move forward....but we do need to keep our past....in our past....and not let it be a hindrance to our growth in the Lord!!!

Hebrews 12:1-2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Hope you have a Marvelous Monday, 

Sweet Reader!!!

In HIS Most Precious Love....and with mine!!!