Hi Brian! The word for this week is "reaching". It's found only one time in the New Testament, but it is one of my favorite verses! Philippians 3:13: 13 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, KJV
This is the Greek word "epekteinomai". Strong's Concordance says: to stretch oneself forward. Thayer's Greek Lexicon says: to stretch out or forward. This is a compound word with the first part being "epi", which Strong's Concordance says is a primary preposition which can mean a superimposition of time, place, order and has to do with direction. Vine's Expository Dictionary says: this word contains an intensive form of "epi". So the focus in this verse is one of refusing to be hindered by dwelling on the past, which could refer to failures OR successes, and instead focusing on what we have ahead of us to accomplish. Here, for a little more context, are verses 12-14 from the Amplified Bible: 12 Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. 13 I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. AMP
Everything that God has promised us in His Word belongs to us, but can only be attained by reaching, stretching, growing, changing and seizing them by faith! It takes patience, diligence, persistence, and a refusal to give up or quit. With that kind of commitment, NOTHING is impossible! All of the wonderful blessings, promotions, favor, riches and rewards that you and your family have experienced, just in this last year alone, are a result of just that attitude! We are praying and believing with you all for even more and better things in the coming year! Here are Hillsong Kids again with "We Came To Meet With You":
