Pastor's Corner: Time to press on

As we start each new year, many of us make resolutions and set goals to improve our lives personally, financially, spiritually or in terms of our health or relationships. Even in the least chaotic years, those good intentions are long forgotten by the time we get to June, halfway through the year.

These days, with prices rising and stress levels rising even faster, most of us are either too distracted or too discouraged to even think about fulfilling our potential. Just getting back to “normal” (whatever that means) is as high as many people dare to dream these days.

But God has higher hopes for your future than just surviving these challenging times. We need to adopt Paul’s attitude as recorded in Philippians 3:14-15, “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Paul recognized that focusing on his past, both successes and failures, would not allow him to press on to fulfill God’s best purposes for his life. Sometimes we long for what we call “the good old days,” forgetting that those times had their share of pain and discouragement as well. Other times, we hyperfocus on our failures and the painful times we have experienced, until we feel too broken to hope that even God’s power can heal us and transform our lives. Neither attitude will help us move toward the blessed future God wants to give us.

It's time to stop mourning the losses of the last few years. It’s time to stop fantasizing about some idyllic past that was never as good as we remember it. It’s time to press on – to fulfill our destiny, the divine purpose God planned for each of us since the beginning of creation. As Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

In that very hope, let’s press on together!