Tag: Focus Forward

Loose Your Baggage And Focus Forward

Posted on by jakirkgasser10439

Lose Your Baggage And Focus Forward

We all carry “soul baggage”—the hurts, regrets, sins, and wounds accumulated over the course of life. Yet Jesus never intended for us to bear this weight. Through His death and resurrection, He has provided a way to unload our burdens, walk in newness of life, and fix our eyes on the path ahead.

  1. Recognize Your Baggage

    • The Problem of Sin

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

    • The Weight of Self-Centering

Sin makes us self-conscious and self-focused. In our pride we hurt others; in our pain we become hurt ourselves.

  1. Christ’s Work to Set Us Free

    • Freedom in Christ

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).

    • Deny Yourself & Take Up Your Cross

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).

    • Recognize Your New Identity

“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight” Colossians 1:21-22

  1. Crucify Your Flesh & Be Baptized into His Death

    • Crucifying the Flesh

“Now those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24).

    • Baptized into His Death

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” (Romans 6:3)

“…that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

  1. Be Led by the Spirit, Not the Flesh

    • The Spirit’s Guidance

“For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son… that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Romans 8:3–4 NKJV).

    • Walking in the Spirit

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2 NKJV).

  1. Give Your Past Baggage to Him

    • His Healing Love

“Having purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit… love one another fervently…” (1 Peter 1:22 NKJV).

    • Casting Your Cares

“Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 NKJV).

  1. Focus Forward on Your God-Given Purpose

    • Pressing Toward the Goal

“Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14 NKJV).

    • Shining as a Beacon

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16 NKJV).

Key Points Recap

  1. Identify the soul baggage of sin and self-centeredness.
  2. Embrace Christ’s freedom—deny yourself, take up your cross.
  3. Crucify your flesh and be baptized into His death.
  4. Walk by the Spirit, not the flesh.
  5. Release your past to God’s healing love.
  6. Press forward on your God-given mission and shine His light.

 Practical Tips:

  1. Identify: Spend five minutes in honest prayer, asking God to reveal areas where pride or past wounds have shaped your thoughts or actions. Journal the results.
  2. Embrace: Memorize Luke 9:23 say it aloud each morning. Let it shape your mindset for the day.

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me”

  1. Crucify: If you haven’t been baptized, talk with your pastor or a disciple about scheduling your baptism to crucify your old life and be released into new life in Christ.
  2. Walk: Start your decisions—big or small—by asking, “Does this align with God’s will?” Journal any impressions or convictions you sense.
  3. Release: Write down one painful memory or regret and literally lay the paper at the foot of the cross in prayer—then destroy it as a symbol of God’s forgiveness.
  4. Press forward: Define one Kingdom-focused goal for the next month (serving, sharing, mentoring, etc.) and commit to specific steps to accomplish it.

Final Encouragement:

You were never meant to haul this baggage alone. Through Jesus’ work on the cross, you can surrender every regret, every wound, every sin—and step into the fresh calling He has for you. Let His Spirit empower you, let His love heal you, and let your life testify to His glorious grace. Focus forward—your best days in Christ are yet to come!

 

Focus Forward

Posted on by jakirkgasser10439

Focus Forward

Are you consumed with problems from your past? Are you overwhelmed with challenges in the present, Are you worried about the future? This little write up might just help you.

I learned several very practical a useful nuggets whle listening to Jack and Carol Webber from UVA Darden School as they taught a course called “Possiblility Thinking”.  One of the key teaching points was about posiitoning your mental framework and it was centered arounf a statement something like this:   

Always respect the past, Be brutaly honest about the present, and Be eternally optimistic about the future.

I have come to appreciate hhow will this aligns with a healthy spiritual ajenda. 

God wants you to move forward from your past. You need to acknowledge your past; You were born a sinner and need a saviour. Once you acknowledge and confess your sins and commit to turn from them, He forgives them so you do not have to dwell in the past and fret about your prior choices, they are behind you.

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14

You are called to deny yourself.  To turn from a focus on you and your own earthly interests and agendas, and become focused on your eternal soul and His agendas working through you. You are called to put off the old man, and put on new life through Christ. Once the earthly, flesh oriented, self has been put to death on the cross with Jesus, there is no place for guilt, condemnation or shame to take hold in you. You are free to move forward.

Be honest: Have you denied yourself? Do you worry about your earthly reputation? What people say or think about you? Are you focused on your posessions or how they can help others?  If you have not already done it, Submit yourself to Him, Get the “Old you” out of the way, let Him live through you.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1

He wants you to move forward in partnership with Him. Have Faith and walk with Him.

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Mathiew 6:33-34

Lord, Thank you for coming here and becoming a sacrifice for me. I submit myself to you as Lord of my life.. I was born with a sinful nature, and that has cased problems for myself and others in the past. I put my old sinful self to death on the cross with you and i am raised up with you in new life. Thank you for forgiving my sins so that i can focus forward. Your mercy and grace washes my past so i can focus forward. I am a vessel for your use; I invite you to live in me, to form in me, to flow through me,  to use me in any way you see fit. With your continued help, I will live as a beacon for your kingdom and bring you glory. I ask this in Jeuss’  name. AMEN 

 

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