2013 Pressing on!

"NJ Marathon Runner"

© Karen Kyle Ericson, all rights reserved.

Don't know about you, but I've given up on New Year's Resolutions : )  I never keep them and noble as my thoughts might be, it just doesn't happen.  So I prayed and asked for inspiration for my blog.  Then I wandered around the house a few times, did laundry,  fed the cats...  My husband likes me to do this blog and asked if I did it yet today, at lunch.  Then there's the little nudge that says, "the blog, don't forget to blog."

So I sat at my drafting table opened my Bible and realized the perfect verses were the ones I highlighted this morning in my quiet time.  Shew! There's a lot we'd like to forget from last year and some things we'd like to cherish.  It's good to start new.  God's forgiveness gives us a new chance when we confess.  Spring brings new flowers; Winter brings a new year.  

These verses were written by the Apostle Paul.  After he became a Christian, he was put in prison, in chains.  Actually this happened more than once, he really got in some trouble.  Paul visited many of the local prisons along with Peter because of their faith.  Paul was an all or nothing type of guy.  He persecuted Christians, and then became a martyr for Jesus.  So I can understand how he would write "forgetting those things which are behind."  

He had to let go of his past; it would have kept him from ever doing anything.  Sometimes memories freeze us up.  Like when a photo gets rejected, it's so tempting to give up.  I have to stop, figure out what went wrong, and try again.  If you think about Paul's words he's saying, "Let it go.  Move on.  Press toward the goal."  

Just like the amount of training the runner has to go through to compete in a marathon, so it is with our faith.  It's about: staying steady, reading the Bible each day (even a verse or two), talking to God, maintaining our relationship with Him, listening to His Word,  thanking Him, asking for help, and helping others.  It's about taking our dreams off the back burner and running, until our feet hurt, and we win the prize.  There's one more promise that gives me tingles.  "... the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus!"

I'm so honored to think He has a call for me.  Simple old me.  That's some God!  He has a calling for all of us.  God bless!  And Happy New Year!

Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
Behold I will do a new thing,
Now it will spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
Isaiah 43:18-19 NKJV