Determination

Philippians 3:14

I love the apostle Paul’s attitude revealed in his words: “I press on toward the goal” (Philippians 3:14).

Those men and women who refuse to get bogged down in and anchored to the past are those who pursue the objectives of the future. People who do this are rarely petty. They are too involved in getting a job done to be preoccupied with yesterday’s hurts and concerns.

Very near the end of his full and productive life, Paul wrote: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). What a grand epitaph! He seized every day by the throat. He relentlessly pursued life.

I know human nature well enough to realize that some people excuse their bitterness over past hurts by thinking, It’s too late to change. I’ve been injured, and the wrong done against me is too great for me ever to forget it. Maybe Paul could press on—but not me!

A person with this mind-set is convinced he or she is the exception to the truths of God’s Word. This individual is determined not to change because “life has dealt him or her a bad hand.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

When God holds out hope, when God makes promises, when God says, “It can be done,” there are no exceptions. With each new dawn, there is delivered to your door a fresh, new package called “today.” God has designed us in such a way that we can handle only one package at a time . . . and He gives us all the grace we need for each day as we live out that day (Matthew 6:11, 34).

Like Paul did, seize every day by the throat. Relentlessly pursue life.