The following is an excerpt from John Hopkins Medicine :
Whether it’s a simple spat with your spouse or long-held resentment toward a family member or friend, unresolved conflict can go deeper than you may realize—it may be affecting your physical health. The good news: Studies have found that the act of forgiveness can reap huge rewards for your health, lowering the risk of heart attack; improving cholesterol levels and sleep; and reducing pain, blood pressure, and levels of anxiety, depression and stress.
Liberate means to set (someone) free from a situation, especially imprisonment or slavery, in which ones liberty is severely restricted. Often times we find ourselves imprisoned to our past situations including people and circumstances. God has a solution. It is forgiveness. Forgiveness releases you from the bondages of bitterness, anger, and indebtedness. A free man is able to make his own decisions without consulting the jailer. Is unforgiveness holding you captive? Liberate yourself through forgiveness and experience what it means to be set free – body, soul, and spirit.
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. John 8:36 KJV
In the Sermon in the Mount, Jesus lays out the characteristics of those that were to be called his apostles or disciples. It exemplifies the characteristics that we all should have if we are looking to live our lives as disciples. I know some of us just want to go to church and feel good about ourselves but the gospel is not a feel good message. God requires that we discipline ourselves so that the glory of God can have full course in our lives so that our lives can reveal Christ to others.
Matthew 5:3 reads “blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (KJV). The Amplified Bible defines the term blessed in Matthew 5:3 as meaning, happy, to be envied and spiritually prosperous – with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation regardless of our outward condition. Do you desire the consecrated life that God requires as a life to be envied or do you envy sinners and what appears to be their liberty to sin. It is humbling when we realize that we must choose humility when we live in a world that rewards proud, haughty, disobedient people. However, if we are to receive that kingdom of God we must humble ourselves and submit ourselves to the maturation process that God requires of us… then we will understand true spiritual prosperity.
Matthew 5:3 Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous—with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Amplified)!
Life is filled with opportunities to reach a specific target or intention. However, many of us miss our objective of hitting the specified target because we fail to practice. Wikipedia defines target practice “as any exercise in which projectiles are fired at a specified target, usually to improve the aim of the person or persons firing the weapons.” For our illustration, your target is your expected end. I am going to use TARGET as an acronym to help us define several projectiles, and you are the weapon of choice. Only you can make your dreams become a reality. With that said, let us begin target practice! The following are the assigned values for the acronym target:
T.A.R.G.E.T.
• Tactics – We need strategic plans to overcome the enemies that block our forward momentum.. Seek out strategies and battle tactics as you pray and meditate. Never forget God is a man of war (Ex 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name). Ask Him for strategies and battle tactics to overcome fears, distractions, hinderances, and people who are sent as destiny blockers.
• Arrange – Put together your priorities so that you can hit your target. Saul got lost in his“stuff” (1Samuel 10:22). We often get sidetracked by insignificant “stuff”’ that attract our attention. Don’t let stuff sidetrack you
• Reconnect – Good target practice requires focus. Jesus said I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Php 3:14). When you find yourself off target, reconnect with your vision and focus on it!
• Gratitude – 1Thessolonians 5:18 states “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you”. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Be thankful for what might seem a little thing. Be grateful that you have a desire begin to fulfill purpose because some have given up hope.
• Evaluate –Webster dictionary defines evaluate as: 1. to determine or fix the value of 2. to determine the significance, worth, or condition of usually by careful appraisal and study. Before you invest too much into a situation evaluate it. Is this the right goal and if so is this the right approach? Scripture teaches us to count our cost before we build. Luke 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
• Trust – Swimming is a sport that requires trust. Alan Watts said “To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.” Dreamer, it is time to trust the dream so relax, and float.
If you will trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, he will direct your path (Pr. 3:5). Why? He gives us dreams bigger than we can accomplish without him. Together with him, you will hit the target so… READY! AIM! FIRE! HIT YOUR TARGET.
Our past can be like a ball and chain that attaches itself to us and keeps us from moving forward. Imagine your life as a race. You have trained, and now you are positioned in your lane ready to obtain the prize. Maybe, it is a new promotion, a first job, or a new family. You are in your lane prepared to go. However, when you begin to run, you find you have no momentum. You don’t comprehend at first why you can’t seem to apprehend the life that you have anticipated. Your momentum halts like a ball and chain wrapped around your ankles.
The ball and chain was a device used in centuries past. It was attached to the ankles of a prisoner and could weigh over eighteen pounds. The weight of the instrument made it difficult for the prisoner to walk, and running was almost an impossibility. Imagine as a runner giving your all while running a race dragging a ball and chain around your ankles. At first, you try to drag yourself to the finish line, but nothing seems work. Unless you are powerful, you will fail either through sheer exhaustion or inability to carry the weight of the device. As you run your race in this life what hinders forward momentum. Often it is our past.
Our past can be like a ball and chain. Imagine running with the weight of your past both good and bad – your past failures, successes, victories, pain, regrets, love, rejection… Anything that does not empower you in your present pursuits could be part of what is weighing you down.
Philippians 3:13 states, “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.” The Greek word for forgetting is a compound word epilanthano. Epi means to turn from one thing to another, while lantrano refers to something obsolete. Epilanthano can loosely translate as “turning from that which is obsolete.” The Greek word opiso is the word translated to behind. The original language implies that its object is something that should be left behind, never revisted.
Now re-imagine your life without the weight of your past. It is time to let go of those old obsolete things that should be left behind never and visited again so that you might run your race and obtain your prize. It is time to run your best race. Runner, take your mark. Get set. Go!!!
Note Greek Translation from: Renner, R. (2016). Sparkling gems II from the Greek: 365 Greek Word Studies for Every Day of the Year to Sharpen your Understanding of God’s word. Tulsa, OK: Teach All Nations
