Part III: Joy Despite Your Past: Principle #14: Focus on the Future

 Memory Verse:

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead

--Philippians 3:13

In this chapter, Paul focused on the future--I like how Pastor Randy talked about the "graphic word" straining.  How, as Christians, we need to focus solely on the goal:

If we are going to advance in the knowledge of Jesus, it will take intense concentration and effort

#keepmovingforward

Father God, I want to adopt, go all in, as Paul did on deepening my relationship with you.,

JOURNAL

Psychologists tell us that achieving mini goals leading to a

bigger goal still completes the reward cycle in our brains

that gives us a dopamine hit and increases our pleasure

and joy.

Follow these steps today to start working on your

future focus:

1. Declare

Tell God you want to adopt Paul’s goal of deepening

your relationship with him. You can speak this prayer out

loud or write it in your journal.

2. Anticipate

Imagine and meditate on the day coming when God, the

Divine Hellanodikai, will call you to come up to stand

before him and, based on your faith in Jesus, place a

crown of righteousness on your head and welcome

you into his eternal kingdom. Close your eyes and get

specific and detailed in this encounter. You can imagine

it in your mind or write it out in your journal.

3. Go for a Small Win

Look for one way you can win today in deepening your

relationship with Christ. If you haven’t been to church in

a long time, make plans to attend this Sunday. If you are

not in a small group with other Christians, take a step

toward joining one. Or, read or listen to a chapter from

the Gospels, like John 15 or 17. Once you complete this

small win, journal your thoughts.

John 15
The Vine and the Branches

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

The World Hates the Disciples

18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’[b] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’[c]

The Work of the Holy Spirit

26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

It pains me to know I will be hated for being a Christian and if I don't feel hated, am I a true Christian?  If they persecuted the Father, they will come after me.  Although, I do find comfort in John 15: 17: This is my command: Love Eachother.  THAT-I-CAN-DO.