Let go and move on.

If you want to move forward you have to move forward. It’s simple, really. You can’t go where you need to go as long as you’re camped where you are camped. It’s irrelevant whether where you are is good or bad – if you want to move forward you have to let go and make decisions to move forward.

“For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11 NET

Believing that God has good plans and a future filled with hope for you is one thing, but living in it is something completely different. If you want your future filled with hope to be your present filled with hope then you need to let go of where you are and move forward. There is always more of God’s goodness for us to experience – no one is experiencing everything that God has for them. It doesn’t matter how good our now is we should be moving forward into more. But how do you move forward?

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead”
Philippians 3:13 NET

Today and tomorrow we’ll take four keys out of this verse for moving forward into more of the future filled with hope that God has for us.

1. I do not consider myself to have attained this.
   You’ll never know everything there is to know about everything and you’ll never know if you’ve experienced everything there is to experience. Don’t allow pride hold you captive by selling you the lie that you’ve arrived. Maintain a humble and teachable attitude. You’re never too old or too young to learn. I was really humbled a few years back when a pastor that I highly respect and love came to me and said, “God has told me that there is a revelation that you have about such-and-such which I need. Can you share with me, please?” I didn’t know everything about that topic back then and since then I have even increased in that revelation tremendously. I haven’t arrived but I have left! We can all learn and grow, and we can learn from anyone. “Once you stop learning, you start dying.” (Albert Einstein)
    
2. I am single-minded.
   James 1:8 says, “…a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” It’s like standing on an icy lake; each foot on a different piece of ice – you’ll end up doing the splits! Have you ever tried to make a decision about what to eat, and you just can’t decide between this or that? Eventually you have to make a decision or you’ll go hungry! The dictionary defines unstable as “likely to change or fail; not firmly established.” If you want to be successful you have to be single-minded.  Another definition of unstable is, “prone to psychiatric problems or sudden changes of mood.” Holding between two opinions can drive you nuts! If you’re not single-minded you’ll be like a yo-yo: up and down and all around! Success comes from being single-minded: having focus. The strength of a laser is in its focus, but when you take away the focus, the light is diffused and weak. It becomes ineffective. The New King James Version of Philippians 3:13 says, “I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do”.  Paul was single-minded. He didn’t say these ten things I do but, this one thing I do. The saying is true: Jack of all trades master of none. What is it that you are called to do? Don’t allow anything else (good or bad) to distract you from that!