If you have read my From My Heart letter you will understand when I say I am forgetting yesterday.  Even though I have had a wonderful holiday....my eyes are set on my tomorrows.  There are more revivals, campmeetings, letters to write, phone calls to make and sermons to write.  There is a new day to spend in the presence of the Lord...a new height to reach for...a better relationship to build...a better prayer life...another year to walk with the Lord. 

Paul said it best like this:  "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but 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." Philippians 3:13 

When I awoke on December 26th, I heard a portion of this quote..forgetting yesterday, reach for tomorrow.  I went to other translations to better understand Paul and read this:  "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.  But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  This revealed my heart as I do not consider to have made it on my own nor have I made it my own but my heart is in a pressing mode. 

Another translation..."No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven."  Here is my heart.  I am not all I should be, nor am I all I want to be but I am not all I shall be! 

As I write this morning, I am closing a door not only on a single holiday, but a year of battles and storms, a life that has carried disappointments and failures and I am looking forward to a new beginning!  A new year of 2009....a life that may have more disappointments and some failures for I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do know.  Every storm, every battle, every disappointment and every failure behind us is the heat that has softened the clay that has allowed the potter to shape this vessel.  I am better today because of my yesterday battles.  I am better today because of my yesterday failures.  I am not all I should be not want to be but I am not all I shall be in this new tomorrow!

Set your face in 2009 toward your future knowing there will be more battles to fight, more victories to rejoice over, more tears and more shouts of joy, more heartaches and more heart leaps but we will walk through this year in that pressing mode...straining to reach the end and obtain the prize!