Keep it up! In His Word 1-27-2025

 

Keep it up! In His Word 1-27-2025

We have been focused a lot on prayer and going forward because it is January. Many people start out doing all kinds of changes this month to make what they think are better decisions and improving their health and lives. One thing that is most important that we need to do, even if you already have done this, is to get in His Word daily! Do not allow a single day to go by without at least a short devotional to meditate on throughout your day and night. Of course its meant to be a beginning to daily reads but I do have a few books out that will help get in the habit of prayer, reading, seeking God’s Word to get in the pattern of study each day. My studies are mostly ‘daily read’ style for the purpose of habitual starts.

But this one is not just about me! It is also about me, but it is about us keeping up the start to the year!  Just as we wind down from the prayer and fasting days, weeks, month, etc., we tend to wind down and start to slack off in our daily reading.

Some people like to follow a plan to read the Bible in a year. My favorite way of doing that is with the Daily Reading Bibles. I like the style of it because I can see the date, I can see the scriptures and I can see the explanations. I think the one I like the most is actually called “Daily Bible” and I have it in paperback. So I can stuff it in my bag and take it with me anywhere with less weight too!

Weight, that’s another thing. I am talking about the heaviness in His Word!

For instance, Abraham was told by God that Sodom and Gamora would be demolished because of their lack of Godliness. Now if you have been reading along the daily Bible you would know that Lot, Abraham’s relative was living there, so he prayed to try to save  them from death and destruction. Below is where in Genesis that  he petitioned God and pushed a bit to get the answer he wanted. Read the rest of the chapter to get more information and a better picture.


Then Abraham pressed his request further. “Suppose there are only forty?” And the Lord replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the forty.” Genesis 18:29

The conversation continues on until God agrees not to destroy the city of Sodom if there were even 10 righteous men living there. But the story goes on from there. You really want to read the rest! It is exciting and really makes you sit up and take note. It makes you consider your heart and why you should push forward, not looking behind you. Lot’s wife does. She looks back against God’s direct command not to. You will have to read to see what happened to her.

Don’t look back!

I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 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. Philippians 3:12-14

Push on, go forward, keep moving ahead; these are mentioned several times in the Word of God. He wants us to look to where we are going not back to where we have been partly because we can do nothing to fix what is behind us to make today different. All we can do is trust that what we do from today forward will push us on toward the place He wants us to be in tomorrow.

Your justice is eternal, and your instructions are perfectly true.  As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands. Your laws are always right; help me to understand them so I may live. Psalm 119:142-144




Sometimes it can be hard to do, we want to go back and start yesterday over so we can save the person we love from demise, tripping up or worse. We want to go back and not get robbed. We want to go back and not break our leg, ankle or arm. We want to look back and remember the times and carry the weight of pain, sorrow, or anger with us into the future. Ouch? Yes, it’s true, sometimes we hang on to things from the past because its what we know. It’s a save to rub in our wound. Sometimes when we have to put ointment on a cut we do not see that it says not to put it on an open wound. When we put it on it actually adds more pain than good for a while. Only for a while, then we learn to leave it alone healing.

If we go on in Philippians 4 it reads…

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:6-9

Keep moving forward. You can’t do anything about what is behind, so we let go of it! Fill our mind with the good things and think on these things instead of the pain, etc. Read Chapter 3 again. In verse 13 it says to forget the things behind.

For more encouragement to keep going look up the math in 2 Peter 1:1-9. Read it and think of the math verses to figure where to go next! What will you add when you keep going?

Keep it up! Don’t give up, don’t give in, give it all to Him. In Jesus’ name. ..