Following one Path With one Passion SFMV#81 – Marty Gabler reads Scripture and prays for us that Father God would help us with a passion to stay on one path. Click on the short video below to be edified and encouraged about your victory this morning.
MARTY–We are approaching the halfway mark of 2024 after many of us committed ourselves to a course with more effective focus for a new year. Some are finding that starting on course is a great deal easier than staying the course. The admirable intentions we begin with may fall prey to the wily snares of unexpected interruptions, discouragement, self-pity and life obligations. Starting on course and staying the course may prove to be very costly. But the loss of that which would never be gained is inestimable. Phil.3:13,TPT—I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. 14 I run straight for the divine invitation of reaching the heavenly goal and gaining the victory-prize through the anointing of Jesus.
Yahweh has shown us in His Word that His sons/daughters are expected to call upon Him and know the breadth, length, depth and height of Him (Eph.4:18). We are also expected to embrace the provision of our Lord (Eph.4:12) that we might receive “perfecting” [completing] and come “unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph.4:13). That large mouthful of descriptive words does not leave room for maintaining a present level of acceptableness and biding our time until we can get some relief at the coming of the Lord. In Paul’s writings we find a great example of a holy dissatisfaction. Phil.3:12,Amp—“NOT that I have now attained, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me…” In the ensuing verses he adds terms like “straining” “reaching forward” and “pressing”. There are levels and potential awaiting us.
May is the month where we may pick up from where we left off on attempting goals and achieving new levels of function and effectiveness for the Kingdom of God. Where we laid vision down, where we laid hope down, where we laid dreams down, we may now go back and pick them up, take a deep breath and move on toward their fulfillment. We will pray and have faith and apply what we have toward their fulfillment just as the farmer and the gardener work the ground and watch with expectancy for their plants to grow and bear fruit. Phil.3:13-14, Amp—“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the [heavenly] prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
The MONTH OF JANUARY IS FOR REACHING BEYOND FORMER BARRIERS. In January, (and throughout 2021) we will reach beyond the stopping points we have always stopped at before. We will not allow poor self-image, sense of unworthiness, family-accepted pitfalls, world chaos or limited resources to keep us from “reaching forward to those things which are before” (Phil.3:13). We will press forward and extend our reach to some markable degree greater than we have before.
A huge, muscular draft horse was pulling a weighted sled in a competition. The horse was obviously straining forward with every ounce of strength he could muster and was making some progress. But he was, with every step, getting closer and closer to a definite stopping point. It didn’t matter that he had dragged the heavy steel sled farther than any of the other horses in the competition, he still came to a sudden halt. It just happened to be a halt that was a bit farther down the track than the other horses’ halts. The “Year End Wrap Up” theme seems to speak to the need to not drag old stuff from the previous year (or even previous years) into the new year. Even though it is a burden, we tend to wrestle with old issues that seem to never get settled or worked out and we just continue to take them along with us into the future. Lethargy, wavering commitment, fear and neglect are some of the weights that make for burdensome sleds that we drag with us from one season to the next. There are issues to resolve before the end of this year that would be easier dealt with and resolved more readily without adding the laborious task of not having ended things well. It is time for a season in our lives where we “wrap up” what has been left at tattered ends. (Gal.6:9; Phil.3:14)
where we laid dreams down, we may now go back and pick them up, take a deep breath and move on toward their fulfillment. We will pray and have faith and apply what we have toward their fulfillment just as the farmer and the gardener work the ground and watch with expectancy for their plants to grow and bear fruit. Phil.3:13-14, Amp—“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the [heavenly] prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
martygabler 