Focus... Concentrate... Press on- and up!

One of the best things I have done for myself is to take this class "Cleansing Streams". It has brought me more peace and emotional well being then any other thing I have done in my life. It has also given me direction and purpose. What i am learning is priceless truthfully.

In the last 6 years I have tried hard to deal with things that have happened in my past. I have gone through years of counseling, as well as taken a Christian class that was based on dealing with past issues. I still could not get over the past. I found that therapy and classes did help some, and i learned a lot, but I still had not let go of the past. I have come to a point in my life that i find myself needing to get over the past. It was time to move forward, and stop dwelling on the past. I needed to live in the here and now as well as look toward the future. Cleansing Streams is providing exactly that.

What i love about the class is that it gives you steps to take. Ones that are important. Steps that have given me so much healing! Each week that I have gone I have changed a little more. Each class has brought me growth and healing.

Today I sat in prayer with the Lord. I then sat and read his word. What popped out at me right away was a verse in Philippians.


In Philippians 3:13-14 it says this: 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.

In my NIV devotional bible it touches on the topic further in saying this: "Forgetting what is behind"! We're little amateur psychologists these days, trying to remember all our pasts-- bringing up why our mothers did this and our fathers did that--to explain all our idiosyncrasies and quirks.
The Bible doesn't so deal with us. It pronounces us sinners and then says to "get on with it', to look up and forward! All the great people of faith in Hebrews 11 looked forward (Hebrews 11:10,14-16,20-22, 26,39-40). So did Jesus: he endured the cross "for the joy set before him"(Hebrews 12-22).
Then , with Paul, we must strain toward what's ahead and fix our attention on that: all God's promises, all our inheritance, and the goal, the prize--Jesus himself!
"one thing I do," says Paul. It's one thing believers who shed the clutter and baggage and get there. They eliminate and concentrate, and they make it!

Take David for instance:
One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple (Psalm 27:4)

Or take Mary. She sat at the feet of Jesus. And he said to her bustling sister Martha, "Only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:42)

Be a "one-thing" Christian! Focus! Concentrate! Press on- and up!

That is exactly what I plan on doing.