HAVING A GOAL

Here we are, standing on the starting line of a New Year. The slate has been wiped clean from the year which has just passed. Have you let go of both your failures and successes of the past year to make room for whatever lies ahead for you during this New Year? Or, are you holding on to the pain and disappointments of last year? Maybe you had a goal for last year which never materialized, and now you are scared to hope anymore. Are you holding on to your successes in case you don’t have any victories in the coming year?

          Do you have a goal that you want to accomplish during this New Year? Paul, the Apostle said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12, New International Version).

 If we really want to accomplish our goal in this new year, we need to press on to be the best that we can be at what we do. How do we become the very best at what we do? By doing what Paul did. He “pressed on” even in the midst of great trials. To “press on” means to “forge ahead” or “to preserve.” We need to “preserve,” to keep going when we don’t have any more strength or energy to pour into what the Lord has ordained us for.   We should not give up on the goal or purpose the Lord has given each of us when it gets tough, or we feel discouraged. Perhaps other people have told us our goal cannot be accomplished, especially by us.

 Just remember, it was the Lord who ordained you for the particular ministry you are in, not the people who are telling you that the ministry cannot be accomplished by you. The Lord said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5). It is an awesome thought that the Lord knew each and every one of us before He formed us in the womb. I don’t know what goes through your mind when you think of that. But when I think that the Lord knew me way back in eternity past, and knew I would be disabled, and still He ordained me to be one of His writers, all I can do is marvel. The Lord knew I would only be able to type with one finger, yet He still chose me to serve Him as a writer. No wonder all my life I had an intense desire to be in ministry. I count it an awesome honor to serve my Lord, and His people with the gift of writing which He has blessed me with.     

 Maybe your goal is more difficult than you thought it would be to achieve, but that is no reason to quit trying. We all need to be like the Apostle Paul who laid hold of the purpose that the Lord had for his life.

          Paul knew that in order to press on, he had to stop looking behind him and keep his focus on what was ahead for him. “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,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14, New International Version). We, like Paul need to focus on what is ahead, and leave the past behind us and not allow the negative experiences and voices, whether our own, or those of other people, to haunt and torment us. None of us can move forward when we are still holding onto the past with one hand, and stretching to hold on to what is waiting for us ahead with the other hand.  

          Once we have been able to really let go of all that has held us back, we are ready to embrace all that the Lord has in store for us in the future. Paul said in the verse quoted above that he is “straining” for what the Lord had planed for his life. If we are going to achieve our goals in life, we need to strain, focus on, and put all our effort into accomplishing our goal or purpose, for which the Lord has created us.

At the end of his life, Paul had an assurance that he had accomplished the Lord’s purpose for his life, that he was able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7). Are we so focused on the Lord’s purpose in our lives, and putting 100% of our strength and energy into the race the Lord has set out before each of us, that we would be able to make a statement as Paul did? I ask the Lord constantly, “Lord, am I pleasing You and fulfilling Your purpose for my life? I pray that I am.”

The Lord rewards His faithful servants. We are told in two separate Bible passages that we will never be able to imagine all that God has in store for us. A prophet in the Old Testament tells us, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You. Who acts for the one who waits for Him.” (Isaiah 64:4). Paul reiterates this truth in one of his Epistles. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9).       

In 2023, let us all leave the past behind us, as we strain and press into all that the Lord has for each of us.

 

                                        By Cindy Mead

 

(All Bible quotations are taken from the New King James Version unless otherwise stated)

 

  

REMEMBRANCE DAY

 All Bible quotations are taken from the New King James Version

            Long before we celebrated Remembrance Day, the Lord instructed the children of Israel to keep a memorial. “So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.” (Exodus 12:14).

          Why is the Lord telling the children of Israel to keep a memorial throughout their generations? The Lord is telling them to always remember the night He released them from Egyptian bondage. The children of Israel had been in bondage to the Egyptians for four hundred and thirty years. In Exodus 2:23, we pick up their story: “Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of their bondage.” God heard their groaning and remembered the covenant He made with their forefathers.

          The Lord found Moses tending a flock of sheep on the back side of the desert. In Exodus 3:7 and 8, the Lord said to Moses: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry . . .for I know their sorrows. So I have come to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey. . .” The Lord told Moses that He has heard the cry of the children of Israel and He has seen their oppression and He is sending Moses to the Pharaoh to bring His people out of bondage.

          After telling the Lord how incompetent and unworthy Moses feels about this assignment, the Lord reminds him, “I will certainly be with you.” Moses finally submits to the Lord and goes before Pharaoh and performs the nine plagues as the Lord commands him to do. The plagues were to get Pharaoh to let Israel go from his bondage so they would be able to worship the Lord in the wilderness. Before each plague, Pharaoh promises to let the Israelites go. When the effects of the plague are over, the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not let the children of Israel go.

          The Lord is about to perform His final plague to cause Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Before the Lord performs the last plague that was to kill all the firstborn of Egypt, including man and beast, He gives instructions to all Israel through Moses and Aaron. First, the Lord tells the Israelites the month of Abib was to be the first month of their year. Then the Lord instructs the man of each household to take a lamb without blemish for his household. On the fourteenth day of the month Abib, they were to kill and roast the lamb, and eat it with bitter herbs.

          The Lord instructed the Israelites to take the blood of the lamb and put some on the doorposts and on the lintel of their houses. This was done because at midnight the Lord’s angel was to slay all the firstborn of the Egyptians. When the angel came to a house where there was blood on the doorposts and lintel, he was to pass over that house. Once the angel had slain all the firstborn of Egypt, there was a great cry throughout the land. “So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.” (Exodus 12:30). After this final plague, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said.” (Exodus 12:31).

          “It is a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.” (Exodus 12:42). From the night the Lord delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, after four hundred and thirty years, they were to keep the Passover throughout their generations. The Passover Feast was to be observed on the fourteenth day of the month Abib.

          After the first World War, which was from July 28, 1914, until November 11, 1919, we celebrate the ending of the first World War, and all the other Wars which have occurred since then on November 11. Remembrance Day is observed on November 11 at 11 a.m. as that was the day and time when the first World War was over with the signing of the Armistice Agreement which ended the War. Remembrance Day was first observed in the Commonwealth states. At first it was called “Armistice Day” in honor of the men and women who gave their lives so we can live in peace and freedom today. The first Remembrance Day was held on November 11, 1931.

          Each year, on November 11, Canadians pause for a moment or two of silence to honor the men and women who have served and continue to serve our country in times of war and conflict, as well as in times of peace. We remember the 2,300,000 men and women who have served our country, as well as the 118,000 who have given their lives in the line of duty that we may live in peace and freedom. “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” (Romans 12:18). The men and women who have served in times of War have made it possible to live in peace. Now, it is up to us to keep that peace.

          This Remembrance Day, as we wear the Red Poppy, we are remembering and honoring all the men and women whose blood was shed so we could live with all the freedoms we enjoy today. On November 11, may we observe one or two minutes of silence to honor those who have given their lives on the battlefields of the world so we can live in freedom today. We also need to give the Lord thanks and praise for the freedom and abundance He has blessed our country with.

          There is another kind of freedom which cannot be obtained with any weapons of war. I am speaking of a spiritual freedom which Jesus Christ, God’s Son purchased for us on the Cross. If you would truly repent of your sin, and turn from sin and live 100% for Jesus, then pray this prayer, “Father, I come to You, to repent of my sin and live totally for You. Please cleanse me from my sin and give me the freedom in the areas of my life that You alone know of. I will follow You for the rest of my life.”

          If you have a Bible, or can access one online, begin reading in the Gospel of John, which is the fourth book of the New Testament. It will explain to you how much God loves you and wants to have a relationship with you.

                              

 

 

HNDERANCES TO THANKSGIVING

 

All Bible quotations are taken from the New King James Version unless stated otherwise.

All through the Bible we are told to give the Lord thanks and praise for all He has done for us. “I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.” (Psalm 9:1).  “Therefore I will give thanks to You, Oh Lord, among the Gentiles, And sing praises to Your name.” (Psalm 18:49). If we are honest with ourselves, and with the Lord, we will admit that we don’t always feel as thankful as we should be. What hinders our thankfulness?

          First, I think comparing ourselves to others, to what they have or can do, hinders us from being or feeling really thankful. As soon as we start comparing ourselves with others, our minds tell us how wonderful life must be for them. Throughout my life, I have made the mistake of comparing myself with able-bodied people, which is an unfair comparison. Almost everywhere I was, my mind would go to someone who could do things faster and easier than I was able to. I struggled with this in High School, Bible College, and even while I was volunteering for a Christian Ministry, which I had always wanted to do.

Instead of being thankful to the Lord for opening this opportunity for me, I was doing the opposite and complaining, within myself, and to the Lord because I could not be as productive as the person beside me. Paul, the apostle, speaks to this issue in 2 Corinthians 10:12, “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”

          We know what happens when we compare ourselves with others. We see ourselves as inferior to them. We are never “good enough.” When that is the way, we view ourselves, eventually we give up and stop even trying to do anything. This kind of attitude will be sure to hinder us from being thankful to the Lord for creating us to be the people we are.  

A second hinderance to thankfulness is discontentment. A lot of discontentment comes from comparing ourselves with others and what they have. We have heard the phase, “keeping up with the Jones.” We become discontent with what we have compared to what the next person has. Then, for some reason, our focus begins to shift from being completely on the Lord to the people and circumstances around us. We become envious of the other person in our thoughts because we think they have it better than us.

At one time, we may have been content with what we had, as well as our life circumstances, when our eyes were focused completely on the Lord and what He has blessed us with, even though it was just enough to get by on. Because we were content, we were able to be thankful to the Lord, and able to serve Him with the gifts He has given us.

Consider the parable of the Vineyard. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.” (Matthew 20:1-2). The laborers were content to work for a denarius a day. The vineyard’s owner kept going to the marketplace at various times during the day – at the third hour, the sixth hour, the ninth hour and the eleventh hour. Each time he went to the marketplace, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you. So they went.” (Matthew 20:4).

When evening came, the vineyard’s owner had the steward call the laborers in to give them their wages for the day. Starting with the last laborers hired, the owner gave them each a denarius. The laborers who started first supposed that they would receive more, but they also received a denarius. They complained to the owner. “And when they had received it (a denarius), they complained against the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day. But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?” (Matthew 20:12-14).

The men who were hired first were contented with their wages at first, before there was anything or anyone to compare them to. Then they did what many of us would have done and started complaining. They had suddenly become discontented with the wages they were given because someone else - who had worked less time - was receiving the same amount. This laborer thought the vineyard owner was not being fair. “But he (the vineyard owner) answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with Me for a denarius?” (Matthew 20:13).

On many occasions, we have the same attitude towards the Lord. As soon as we see others around us being treated better than us (from our perspective), we become discontented with our circumstances. Before we knew that someone else had better circumstances, we were perfectly content with our present situation.

 May I give you a personal example? I live in a Long-Term Care Home. I have always been a morning person; therefore, I like to get up as early as possible. As I am unable to get up on my own, I have to wait until a Personal Support Worker (PSW) comes and gets me ready for the day and transfers me into my wheelchair. Many times, I see residents who were gotten up before me passing by my room. Very often I have thoughts and feelings I am disappointed to have as a Christian. I am constantly asking the Lord to forgive me and let me be thankful for whatever time I get up.

A third hinderance to thanksgiving is self-pity or being self-absorbed. “Self-pity is having pity on oneself; especially a self-indulgent attitude concerning one’s own difficulties.” (Dictionary definition). There can be a number of reasons why we might feel sorry for ourselves. When we are depressed or have lost hope, we may feel sorry for ourselves. Solomon, in the book of Proverbs, says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” (Proverbs 29:18, King James Version). I think this is the best definition of self-pity and depression.

This was the way I felt right after I graduated from High School. I felt like my “life” was over. I did not have a goal or vision to look forward to. At that time, “life” was like staring at a blank wall. I admit that during my time of depression, which lasted three years, I remember praying one day, “Lord, if this is all there is to life after High School, then why did You let me live at birth?”

When we are in a state of self-pity or depression, it is very hard to be thankful for anything or to anyone, including the Lord. Most of the time, we blame the Lord, instead of being thankful to Him. When I look back on that time of my life, I’m ashamed of the way I talked to the Lord, and the ungrateful attitude I had towards the Lord and everyone around me. “Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.” (Hebrews 12:15).

Over the years I have learned, and continue to learn, to be content and thankful in every situation. Paul even had to learn contentment. “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.” (Philippians 4:11).

   There are many other issues that may be hinderances to keep us from being as thankful as we should be to the Lord, and to those around us. May we practice thankfulness. It will help us feel more grateful for what we have, and for what we are able to do. Our thankfulness will bless those around us.

 Would you like to know Jesus as your Saviour and Lord? Are you willing to repent of your sin and turn completely from your sin to living 100% for Jesus?   If you are willing to live 100% for Jesus, pray this prayer: “Jesus, I want to invite You into my life to be my Saviour and Lord. I repent of all my sin and turn to living for You. Please cleanse me by Your precious blood. I surrender my life completely to You now. I also want to be thankful for all You have done for me.”

If you have a Bible, start reading in the Gospel of John, the fourth book of the New Testament which explains who Jesus is (the Word), how much He loves you, and what He has done for you in His life, death and resurrection.