If we want to move forward, we need to look forward. We won’t hit a target in front of us if we are focused behind. So, after learning from the past, being reminded of Who God is, we set our aim ahead.
Remove obstacles
Sin is a huge obstacle to moving forward. Repentance and obedience are key in our progress.
The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger. Job 17:9
Do your homework. Make use of the resources God has given. Check His Word. Pray. Gather godly people to listen and learn from. Make your plans - but hold loosely. God has His own map for your journey.
Plan
Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. Proverbs 11:14
In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly. Proverbs 13:16
Embrace the new
God is creating a new you, giving you a new way or new path – don’t fall into old patterns that didn’t work.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Watch and listen for direction markers
It’s not only that we’re new creatures – it’s also the way God is working that is new to us. He is leading us forward in unfamiliar areas. He may ask me to go through a door I have never even noticed. Or maybe He is asking me to take a path I have intentionally avoided.
Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19
Stay Focused
Don't get distracted. Run for the prize.
Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Proverbs 4:25
Persist
Keep going. It’s not going to be easy. God doesn’t mean for it to be. But keep moving toward Him. Like a child learning to walk He is calling us to Himself, encouraging each forward step. We will inevitably fall, it is part of learning to walk, but we must get up and keep going.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14
I want to move forward – closer to Him and to His plan for me. I am taught and emboldened by the past, but my focus is forward. Let’s encourage one another onward. Today is a new day.
