Bulls-Eye!

"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

At my exercise class Monday, we were sharing with each other about our New Year's decisions, what we were thankful for, our hopes... our dreams.  Ya know, the stuff women share when they're comfortable enough to sweat together...hahaha!  During our devotional time at the end, our leader shared the verses above.

The part that really struck me was the part I underlined....forgetting what lies behind.  Personally, I like to cuddle my hurts.  I tell myself that "those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it" and other ridiculous nonsense.  In reality, I'm afraid.  Afraid that God can't heal, won't protect, doesn't have the best plan for me. 

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."  Jeremiah 29:11

Snuggling my hurts and reminding myself of them (notice: the exact opposite of what I'm supposed to be doing) is also based in PRIDE.  I tell myself how good I am...and how I don't have to like such and so cuz they are bad and mean and they hurt me.  Um, yeah...sort of realized I missed the point.

"And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”  Mark 11:25

As we discussed some of these thoughts, one gal said she had this drawing in her Bible of a target/bulls-eye.  She said, that JESUS should be our bulls-eye. 

Unfortunately, we aim for the outside edge of the target.  We start with BEHAVIOR...those things that we want to change.  I'm going to eat healthier, exercise more, control my anger, etc.  Sound familiar?

Maybe we hit a little closer into the BECAUSEs...the reasons we give ourselves for not quite focusing on Jesus.  The BECAUSEs can be legitimate hard things to get around.  They are those things that did happen and maybe they happened to us and BECAUSE of them...we aren't quite on target. 

But, we can hit the bulls-eye if we aim at JESUS!  He IS perfect grace, TRUSTworthy, and MIGHTY TO SAVE!

So, I'm going to attempt to fix my eyes...right on the bulls-eye of my life...JESUS!