Reach

 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. Philippians 3:13....."We don't need to stop hurting before we move forward. The healing comes in the moving out......You can get past what you can't get over." Christine Caine

Philippians 3:13 may be the most used Scripture for the start of a new year. It also may be the least realized. There are multitudes of people who simply cannot seem to get past their past. They're held in the chains of regret, guilt, anger, bitterness, and pain. Wounds inflicted decades before still fester and are open sores. They are crippled emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. When it comes to so much of our past, we stand still, and never get beyond what has happened to us, or been caused or done by us.

We live in a fallen world, and the fruit of that world can have devastating effects upon us. The death of loved ones, the collapse of a marriage, the heartbreak of parenting wayward children. Add to that our personal failures, the betrayal of friends, and the various kinds of abuse that all of us suffer in one way or another, whether as children or adults. The pain is real. The loss is real. What we're feeling and thinking is real, and those thoughts and feelings can forge chains that hold us in ever tighter grips, crippling us in every area of our lives. Our enemy, the devil, uses all of it to enslave and torment us. Yet there is no chain that cannot be broken by the power available to us in Jesus Christ. We simply must believe that and receive that. Yet doing so seems impossible to so many. That's why our wills in this are of such deep importance. We must choose to be free, to move on, and then the power to do so is given us by His Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ knows the effect that tragedy has upon us. He knows that there are some things that will always bring pain when remembered. He has no expectation that they wouldn't, but He also has no expectation that we should be captive to the tragedies of life. That is why the exhortation from the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3 is so powerful. We can reach forward. We can move on. We can be free. We must be free.

Paul was a man who certainly had regrets and who was both the initiator and recipient of deep wounds. Before his conversion on the Damascus Road, he had savagely persecuted the early believers. So awful were his acts that he referred to himself as the chief sinner before Christ. He also knew the great pain of betrayal, of being unfairly treated and hated. He knew the pain of being the victimizer, and the victim. Yet he didn't live in the place of what he'd done or had been done to him. He was always reaching forward. He was determined to enter into the fullness of all that the Father had for him. Where he'd sinned and failed, he repented. Where he'd been wounded, he sought and received His healing. Where he'd been abused, he forgave. He never lost sight of His Lord, and the place He was leading him to. So must it be with us, but again, it comes down to our wills. Do we will for it to be so, for us to move forward and experience His healing, or, do we stay where we are.....and continue to bleed?

What chains hold you today? Will they still be holding you tomorrow? Has the power of Philippians 3:13 been realized in your life? Is it being realized now? On this side of eternity, the memories and the pain will always be real, but they don't have to be final. There is life and fulfillment beyond. It's there right now. Reach forward, and as you do, the healing will come. The chains will fall off, and you will be free.....if you truly want to be. Reach!

Blessings,

Pastor O