{"id":11250,"date":"2017-07-24T00:10:01","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T07:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=11250"},"modified":"2017-07-24T00:10:01","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T07:10:01","slug":"july-24-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/07\/24\/july-24-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"July 24, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201c\u2026.but I press on that I may hold of that which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me.\u201d<\/em> Philippians 3:12<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI press on toward the goal of the prize in the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.\u201d<\/em> Philippians 3:14<\/span><\/p>\n

Pressing On<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Pressing on<\/em>: doing the inconvenient or hard thing when God calls me to; to move on in pain and unwillingness. I\u2019m so glad Jesus loves me and reminds me of these verses often. This \u201cpressing on to the goal\u201d<\/em> takes a conscious effort to do the \u201cright thing\u201d and live in obedience to the Lord for His glory. The definition in Webster\u2019s of press is: to force or squeeze into shape. God is shaping us into the image of Christ. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This has been the verse I\u2019ve had next to my computer at work for several years, but lately it seems to be more applicable. In aging, the enemy has been whispering, \u201cYou\u2019re old, you don\u2019t have to do that\u2026\u201d or, \u201cYou can retire in a few years, just give it up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I like to jog. I\u2019m certainly not fast, but I enjoy the exuberance of the exercise and fellowship with the Lord outdoors. Over the years I\u2019ve pressed on through minor injury and lack of energy, but it seems lately my lack of energy has turned into laziness. \u201cI\u2019m old\u2026.\u201d But in the physical the Lord uses these to loudly teach spiritual lessons. He reminds me to stop my excuses and to \u201cpress on,\u201d remembering, \u201cA day to the Lord is as a thousand years\u201d<\/em> (2 Peter 3:8, out of context) and I\u2019m still upright and breathing. I can put on my running shoes and do this; I\u2019m going to continue to press on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pressing on when we have teenagers, continuing to love them even when it seems hopeless. Pressing on in prayer for that loved one who continually fights the call of God in their life and I want to say, \u201cWhat\u2019s the use?\u201d Pressing on through the pain of chronic illness for God\u2019s glory. Pressing on when we\u2019re never going to have enough money to do our home repairs. Pressing on through a confrontational day at work looking for the Lord\u2019s well of wisdom and kindness when I\u2019d rather not press through this, but it\u2019s the right thing\u2026. I need to press on.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have dreams of ministry for the Lord in other nations and the thought sometimes comes that this is for others, but I know what God\u2019s put on my heart so I let it rest in Him and press on in prayer for His perfect time and circumstance. All is in His capable hands. Don\u2019t give up on those dreams the Lord has given you!<\/span><\/p>\n

We all have things daily that we need to press through, remembering it was because of \u201cthe joy set before Him\u201d<\/em> (Hebrews 12:2) that Jesus pressed through the hardest thing in history\u2014He died on the cross for our sin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLord, thank You for the strength and goals You give us daily to \u201cpress on\u201d through. May we never give up because You never gave up, and never will. We love you, Jesus.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026.but I press on that I may hold of that which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me.\u201d Philippians 3:12 […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-2Vs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}