Momentum.

Psalm 84

4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.
Selah

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools. 

7 They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.

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blown away by John Siebeling's sermon last night at the Dreamcenter. Thursday night's guest speaker exceeded expectations, and i heard so clearly. 

Momentum. forward motion. living a life of momentum. 

People living without momentum are allowing a moment in the past to define their moments in the future. dwell on that for a little bit. We can't live life looking backwards. and the part that blew me away was this: the moment in the past need not be a moment of failure, and of shame. it could very well be a moment of glory. a moment of celebration. wow. reliving that glory moment and allowing that moment to define your future moments. Are you stuck in a moment from your past?

Pilgrimage. A journey to a significant place. Verses 4 and 5 tell us that someone who is reaching for significance will be blessed. reaching for that something significant, that something greater than the self, and not having your eyes on the glory days or on your shameful past. 

Pastor John then goes on to talk about how the first 2 tracks of U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind paints the pictures of both opportunities and getting stuck in you past and puts them side by side. Track 1's Beautiful Day, which speaks of the moments of opportunity while right after that, Track 2's Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of  talks about the moments in our past we get stuck in. And the icon for that song in the album? it's a dot with four arrows pointing inwards toward that dot. Stuck in a moment you can't get out of. Stuck, and so void of straining toward the glorious future that God has for us. 

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So how do we get unstuck? Pastor John says we have to learn to be good forgetters--and to develop the gift of forgetting. moving on. 

The bible tells us to accept responsibility to forget. Oftentimes people have victim mentalities--he/she did this to me; i wouldn't be able to forgive her etc.  and so spiral into a situation where they get stuck in these past moments. But Psalm 84 says:

6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;...

Even though God's people were passing through the valley (low point in your life) of Baca ("weeping"), they make it a place of springs... they make it a place of springs! (of refreshing!). They make it. Their attitude toward these seemingly unfair moments? they accept the responsibility to forget. and they make it.

1) Being a good forgetter means being a good forgiver.

There is no way to move forward without forgiving. Proverbs 18:19 says that "an offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city." 

2) Being a good forgetter also means trusting God. 

Romans 8:28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Forgetting means trusting God with all my stuff, all the baggage, the good the bad and the ugly, and trust that He works all that for the good of the believer. 

To relive the past is to relinquish the future. Just the decision to look forward into the future can release the healing power that you need for your situation. Stop, turn around, and dare to face it. 

Paul tells us in Phil 3:13- "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,..." It seems as if Paul's actually telling us to do two things. but it really is one thing. Forgetting your past, you strain toward the future. To strain toward the future, you have to forget your past. 

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Verse 7 of this psalm goes on to tell us that the believer will "go from strength to strength,

till each appears before God in Zion." Reminded me of the verse that tells us that we will grow from glory to glory just as long as we keep our eyes on our prize, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Strength to strength, as we let go of our past and reach for our future. 

Wow. 

and earlier that week, i was listening to Hillsong's Blessed--a song based on Psalm 84. I was like -- this message is for me. 

*

In awe. 

Hillsong - Blessed