Keeping Your Eye on the Prize

~~ Philippians 3:13-14 ~~  Brothers, 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.

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One of the most amazing feelings in this world is the thrill that you feel after you have achieved a goal that you have been working very hard to achieve.  This is especially true if you have been working toward your purpose for a long time, or if you have spent a lot of money, or made some sacrifices.  After months of training to run a marathon you finally cross the finish line; or after months of planning a wedding, the pastor finally says “I now pronounce you man and wife”; or after years of going to school you are finally handed your diploma.  Maybe your thrill comes from something much simpler; like when you finally have all the housework done, the kids are in bed, and it is still early enough and you are not too exhausted to have some quality alone-time with your spouse.

One of these thrills happened for me when I reached my goal weight after being on a weight loss mission for well over a year.  I have learned many lessons from going through the weight loss process.  At least 50% of these lessons are not about health, nutrition or physical appearances.  They are lessons that will not only stay close to my heart, but lessons that have changed who I am... and they are still changing me.  I will not list all of these lessons now because that is surely a topic for, at least, a few other blogs.  However, one of these lessons was that, being patient and waiting for things to happen in God’s time is so very well worth it!  Another was that; I have it in me to challenge myself and push myself extremely hard, and to withstand the test.  Still again, another of these most important lessons was the significance of staying focused on my goal.  Even part of this lesson, was that the real goal is not to see a certain number on the scales, or even to fit into a certain clothing size.  Granted, these are important but to be truly successful on this venture the real goal needs to be that of becoming healthy... body, mind, and spirit!  As my vision developed and changed through the course of my journey, I learned more and more about what is important.  I was able to force myself to press on toward my objective, and I did so without giving into temptation to quit just because I was just too exhausted to go any further.  It was my dream that kept me motivated, determined and inspired.

Another thing I learned is that, the reasons behind being overweight are as varied as there are people who need weight loss.  However, there seems to be one common reason for weight gain among most people; and, believe it or not, it is not overeating!   Well, indirectly, overeating is the main reason; but there is always another reason why we overeat in the first place.  Inside our minds and our hearts there are psychological reasons why we sabotage our health as we do; sometimes, even purposefully as a form of punishment for ourselves.  To simplify it, I believe this to be because deep down inside our hearts we do not love ourselves enough.  To be a success in your attempt to be healthy, the psychological issues must be dealt with.  Without it, you are fixing the ‘symptoms’ without dealing with the ‘illness’ itself.

As children of the almighty God, we are made in His image (Genesis 1:27).  As such, it means that we all want to love and to be loved.  Unfortunately though, we are misled by the world about what love really is and what it takes to achieve that goal.  The world tends to put conditions on love whether we are giving it or receiving it; even when it comes to loving ourselves.  When these conditions are not met we feel unloved and unworthy, which leads to depression and all sorts of other things.  This, in turn, leads to guilt and unforgiveness for ‘falling short’.  To add to the issue, we also tend to be much harder on ourselves than we are others, and we punish ourselves.  Despite how difficult it feels to forgive others at times, have you ever noticed how much easier it is to forgive someone else than it is to forgive yourself?!  This kind of judgement is God’s responsibility only.  We hold ourselves accountable to conditions that we, not only, do not hold others to; but to those conditions that are not possible to meet because they are manmade conditions, not God’s conditions.   

Learning to forgive is vital.  That is, not just to forgive others but to forgive ourselves as well.  Jesus said “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37).   God also said “...I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 8:12).  So, if God can forgive and forget just because He loves us that much, than why can’t we do the same with each other, and for ourselves?  Spending eternity with God is our most important goal in life; just as being healthy is the true goal in our attempts to alter our physical appearance.  Not only that but, just like making our ‘goal weight’ the focus of a weight loss program, we are limiting ourselves; we have to stop putting conditions on God’s love, or we will not get to experience life or love to its fullest.  We need to learn to be easier on ourselves, to forgive, to stop judging and condemning.  I have forgiven other people for just about anything and everything; including some very traumatic experiences.  Forgiving me though, is one of my biggest struggles.  Why are we so hard on ourselves when God does not feel the same way?  How about you; are you harder on yourself than you are others?  Do you punish yourself for not ‘measuring up’?  Are you completely sure that you truly have your eye on the Big Prize?  If not, maybe it is time to do some re-prioritizing.

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~~ Dear God ~~   We know that the ‘Big Prize’ is spending eternity with You.  I love the thrill of having Jesus in my heart knowing that He is the only Path that leads to Heaven.  Please help me to forgive myself for not measuring up to my own unrealistic standards.  Do not let me have negative thoughts or judgements about others or myself.  Keep my thought life and emotions ‘in check’ with Your Will for my life.  In Jesus name, AMEN.

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