Lord, help me live with a focus on the journey ahead of me

| Photo by Photo Nic on Unsplash

Life’s journey is like a marathon, not a 50-yard dash. It is trying and challenging, and many decisions must be made if we are going to finish the race of following Jesus.

In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul writes, “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

What are we focusing on in our journey of life? What do we look for in life? Focus is important in every aspect of our lives. Without focus, we do not know how to live. Our focus will determine our decisions and our direction on our journey.

Paul shares about the focus that we need on the journey:

• We need to forget the past! How many people focus on the past and everything that has happened in their lives? You cannot change the past, so we need to let it go. Paul had a terrible past. Although he was religious, he persecuted Christians and sought to destroy the church. But once he encountered Jesus, he continually had to forget the past. Do we need to stop focusing on the past?
• We need to focus on the future and look ahead in the race. If you are not looking where you are going, getting lost, getting off track, and giving up on life’s journey is easy. When you focus on the future, you realize that “God has a plan for us, a plan to do us good and not harm, to give us a hope and a future.”
• We need to focus on finishing the journey. What good is starting a journey if you will not finish it? If we start following Jesus, we need to finish the race. Heaven is a reality, and we need to finish the race. One day, I want to hear those words: “Well done, you good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.”

Lord, help me live with a focus on the journey ahead of me!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pastor Ronald Squibb has been the International Christian Church (ICC) Lead Senior Pastor at State‎n Island, New York, since 2011. He draws many experiences from his over 40 years as a pastor and significant emotional life experiences.

His new book, Following the Journey with Jesus, which he co-authored with Daniel McNaughton, was recently published and is getting rave reviews. His daily devotional appears in this publication.