abundant life

<same as last time> But this 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. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. Philippians 3:13-15

Last time we looked at living every day of our lives instead of reacting and existing and wondering where the time went. Today, I want to look at how Paul tells us how he lives every day to the fullest: He does this in 3 thoughts:

1. Forget Yesterday; Don’t Stop
“Forgetting what is behind” – That is hard to do. Yet life is less than what it can be if we keep carrying around all of our yesterdays. Even if our past is stellar, it weighs us down. Paul isn’t telling us to press the ‘Delete’ button on the past from the tablet of our minds (and there’s no ‘Undo’ button in life). He meant that the past is not a place to stop—it’s a place to build upon.

Paul didn’t let his past failures or successes obstruct his present running of God’s race set before him. Like it says in Hebrews 12:1 …let us let go of everything that hinders, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.

The literal translation, when it tells us to ‘let go of everything that hinders,’ is “get rid of every arrow tip stuck in us.” The implication is carrying an arrow tip inside, a wound that weighs us down and keeps us from running our race with freedom.

We’ve been in spiritual battles. Let go of the wounds. The race is now. Forget Yesterday.

2. Live Today with Eyes Fixed on Jesus
“This is the day the Lord has made, therefore be glad in it” (Ps 118:24). Live today. It is a gift from the God who loves us. Live it to the fullest. How do we live today? Hebrews tells us that we can “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” by “fixing our eyes on Jesus.”

Only Jesus can give our lives purpose. He is the One who created you and me in the womb. He is the One who birthed us as individuals and we will only find our purpose in Him (Jer 29:7). He is the source of abundant life, and the goal of living.

3. Trust Tomorrow into God’s Hands
Trust Tomorrow – there is victory here. “Take therefore no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow will take thought for the things of itself” (Matt 6:34). Refuse to worry about tomorrow. Refuse to count on tomorrow. Instead we need to trust our tomorrows to God.
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But this 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. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. Philippians 3:13-15

How many days of 2017 did you and I really live? How many days did we live out, rather than exist through? Or did we wander the corridors of the unchangeable past? How many days did we live within, rather than obsessing over tomorrow’s potential problems?

Or maybe it’s just pace. We can live fully alive, aware, and appreciative of all the moments we are experiencing, or at frantic pace, or glued to our phones, tablets, or TVs?

Don’t get me wrong, we can’t be 100% present all the time. Life in our world doesn’t allow very many people that luxury. But all the same, it’s easy to get distracted and lose days and weeks without coming up for air…without taking a fresh look at living…and we end up reacting rather than living.

Especially in the Christian faith that has historically championed discipline and duty, we can get so spun in on the tasks at hand that we lose track of what really matters. Family, friends…doing things that are rewarding, something fun – something fully today.

The Apostle Paul had found the key to living today. For all the ways he could commend himself, he knew his value was not in his past achievements. For all the ways he could obsess over his past failures, he didn’t do that, either. Considering his bleak future, he could have obsessed on that. And as for his present circumstances, he wrote today’s verses from a miserable jail cell.

Yet Paul seemed to live every day to its fullest. “My heart overflows with joy …” He writes in the following chapter, “for I have learned to be satisfied in any circumstance. I know what it means to lack, and I know what it means to experience overwhelming abundance. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation …I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Phil 4:10-13). (more…)