set your sights on the horizon!

I've been reading alot of blogs lately that talk about missing the good ole days. When things used to be easier and when the enjoyment of life was but a lolly pop in your hands. I remember when i was 8 years old i used to play this game where you pretended to be an adult. I always wondered what it would be like to be older. Thirteen years later, you find me here sitting in this very soggy room with dim lights posting on a note no one will ever read. And i ask myself, do i miss the good ole days?

I remember reading a passage in the bible regarding change. In 1 Corinthians 4:16, apostle Paul talks about our days passing by and that outwardly it is being wasted away. But inwardly we have a shape that is being renewed day by day. God has really placed this upon my heart lately. The reason? I think the devil really entraps us in his snare with experiences in the past. If you grew up at the church, you would remember the "glory days." The glory days were the moments where you really felt God was moving amazingly and powerfully within your ministry or church.

I remember when i was in Junior High and i was jumping up and down without a care in the world. HEY I LOVE JESUS SO LET ME PRAISE HIM WITH EVERYTHING I GOT! I remember when there were miraculous healings going on throughout our high services. I remember leading praise in front of a group of 100 plus high school students at Revivals where we had anointed speakers come and impart to us the knowledge of the word. I remember being used by God in so many ways that one that was sixteen could not even imagine! I was so privileged and so honored to be able to do such things. I remember meeting so many awesome people and being connected to different people through music and ministry. God was really moving in my life! Those were the "glory days"...

But just as Paul says in his epistles, everything that he felt that he gained to himself was counted as loss for the sake of Christ (Phil. 2:7-9). What am i living for? Am i living for the sake of being used by God? Am i living so that i can mark my place in the book of history? Do i want to surpass my parents and learn from their mistakes? Am i just living off the fumes of the past experiences that i gained?

I am called to a sanctified living breathing human being to worship the God almighty all the days of my life. For this reason, and this reason alone i am excited for my future. I thank God for the past, but i am eternally grateful for the future that is set before me in heaven. I am headed heavenward, not looking back to the things i've gained from the past. I want to run forward and toward the greatest treasure ever: Jesus Himself!

So what if you don't experience so called "spirit to spirit" experiences everyday? Are you not Holy Spirit filled? Are demons causing this to happen? I've heard it all....

But i know even if i fall, i know that i am falling into the embrace of his grace. Even if not.... I am going to live like i never lived before.

Thank you for another breath.... another sun set.......

"and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." Colossians 3:10

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2

"So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun." Ecc. 8:15