WOW! WOW! WOW!
God blows me away with His deep love and attention. So, every morning I say before my run I must share a message from Ceri. Out of 563 of his messages I have saved on our YouTube channel, I picked was the perfect one to reshare for the new year where he spoke out this verse:
“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” – Philippians 3:13-14
Fast forward about three hours later, my other messenger from God, Joey, sends me this message:
Forget about it
The past mistakes and failures were real and even painful, but you can’t allow it to influence today. Do as Paul said “this one thing I do, forget the things behind.” So forget about it. Philippians 3:13
The fact that out of Ceri’s 563 messages, I picked that one quoting that specific verse, to line up so perfectly with Joey’s message was God Himself speaking to us all today – NO COINCIDENCE!!! Here’s what Ceri explained:
“Today, I am grateful for a new year AND I’M GRATEFUL FOR WHATEVER LIES AHEAD. Something that stood out to me what Paul said in this particular verse when he’s speaking of the Philippians was he said, “but I focus on one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.” He didn’t say that he had amnesia and forgot about the past, he said but I FOCUS on one thing. That means that he actually took his time and dedicated his time. When you focus on something, you put all your time and energy into that. That’s what focus is like, when you actually focus on something you have tunnel vision toward it.
When we have plans, goals, dreams, we have to focus on it. We have to tunnel vision that! We have to remember that our past doesn’t determine who we are. Our past just is something that we live, it’s a process that we went through. It’s what lies ahead that matters and the decisions we make today will determine how our future lies ahead, not our past. Our choices today cannot affect our past. What’s done has already been done, but the decisions that we make today, are what will affect tomorrow. And I think that that’s one of the messages Paul was trying to convey to us in these verses.
Another thing that he said that I must highlight is “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the Heavenly prize for which God through Christ Jesus is calling us.” That Heavenly prize is to live with him and obey his word. But most importantly, following these two Commandments that I always stress: love God and love each other. That’s it. Love God and love each other.
It’s so important for us that while we’re focusing, to remember those two things because they will determine today what our tomorrow is like by loving God and loving each other. We focus on them. Go ahead towards our goals. Head in the direction of our goals, but keep those two things at the center of our life – His Commandments: loving Him and loving each other. That will help to determine how good of a future we have, which will carry us to our Heavenly prize for which God through Christ Jesus is calling us.”
Honestly, following this advice from Ceri of leaving the past in the past and loving God and loving others has led me to a beautiful destination! Seeing my daughter, Ember, on a video call in their new apartment that she is sharing with her sister, Julie, made the momma so incredibly happy. GOD, THANK YOU FOR YOUR GUIDANCE!! I love my life, and I’m GRATEFUL FOR WHAT LIES AHEAD, AS I FOCUS ON LOVING GOD AND OTHERS. (Wink! Wink!)”