By Pastor Andrew Farland
In some high schools around the United States, teachers invite students to try and walk a straight line while wearing special goggles, the kind that makes your vision blurry and your brain dizzy.
The whole point is to show teenagers that alcohol affects them in a similar way to try to walk straight with blurry goggles on. It’s comical to watch a student attempt to walk a straight line because of how much they sway back and forth, some even falling over.
Our walk with Jesus can begin to look a lot like a student wearing goggles. We want to walk a certain way, but as life throws us different obstacles, we stumble and fall. Or if we’re honest, we say that we have a new life in Jesus but we look back at our old life way too much. And, when we do, we start to trip over our own feet.
The Bible says, in Philippians chapter 3, that we should forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead. God wants us to focus on Jesus, not the mistakes we’ve made before. He doesn’t want us to focus on the old life we tried to leave behind when we started following Him.
It’s hard to run a straight line if you’re looking backward!
I think you need to hear this truth today. God wants you to let go of your past and let God be in control of your future. Here are two simple steps to keep in mind as you go about your day:
Run the race to win the prize. Remind yourself of the promise of heaven that God gives to everyone who follows Jesus.
Take big steps forward. Be confident in your forward movement, knowing that God is in control.
If you’re a Christian, you have been adopted by God, into His family, and He sees you as His son or daughter. He does not see your past and He doesn’t want you to be held back by it anymore.
Philippians 3:14
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Be encouraged today because God is with you.
