The One Thing Vital to Having a New Year

You know you’re reading a good book when you stay up most of the night just to find out what happens in the end.

And you can spot a good author when she leaves you hanging at every chapter. You can’t turn the page fast enough, and you certainly aren’t ready to close the book.

I doubt you turn back and re-read previous chapters, either. 

When you come to the end of chapter 17, you eagerly turn to chapter 18. You don’t waste your time re-reading chapter 3.

You’re done with chapter 3.

It’s the law of “forgetting and reaching” (Phil. 3:13).

Paul called this “one thing.” The one thing he did in life was make sure he never stayed in chapter 3. He saw the value of every chapter in his life, but he perceived the greater value of the chapters ahead.

Every life is a story already written down—a story written by the greatest Author—the One who has been writing stories since before time began.

Every chapter is vital to the overall story. But to find out why they’re so vital, you have to close every chapter and move forward.

Reading a story is easier than living one.  It must be, because I often find myself looking back at chapter 3 . . . and chapter 9 . . . and chapter 17 . . .

But if you and I want to have a new year, it’s vital to keep every chapter we’ve already lived closed.

Living a new year means one thing: forgetting and reaching.

Two actions rolled into one.

Like turning a page.

It’s the law of forgetting the past and moving forward.

And living the story God has already written down.

2013 is about to close.

Let’s keep it closed and turn eagerly to the chapter ahead. 

Reaching forth in total dependence on the God Who will be just as faithful in the next chapter as He was in the last.

“This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, 

and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 

I press toward the mark for the prize 

of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13,14).