JonCourson: “We need to put the past away and lift our eyes higher"

 

 

February 15
	And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
	Judges 1:19
Why couldn’t Judah drive out the inhabitants of the valley? Because their eyes were fixed on the iron chariots rather than on Almighty God. If your eyes are fixed on the Lord, I care not how formidable your foe might be, it can be overcome. But if your eyes are on the obstacle - if you’re focused on the problem, if you’re in bondage to your past - you will not drive out your enemy no matter how small it is. You’ve got to lift your eyes higher and fix them on the Father. Yes, the enemies of Judah had chariots of iron, but if Judah had lifted their eyes higher and focused upon the One who has twenty thousand chariots at His command (Psalm 68:17), they would have been victorious. Judah was successful in the mountains, but they were discouraged and defeated in the valley. We sometimes tend to live in our past. We think that because we’ve had problems with iron chariots previously, we need always be fearful whenever we see them on the horizon. Not true. We need to be a people who put the past behind us - past defeats, past discouragements, past wounds, past failures, past sins. “This one thing I do,” said our brother, Paul, “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 3:13-14). We need to put the past away and lift our eyes higher - beyond the failure of the past, beyond the chariots of the present - to the high calling of God Who enables us to do all that He asks of us.