2022_12_26 Insight Post- Kim Feld

  -   December 23, 2022

This week’s reading- Philippians 1 & 4

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating the birth of Jesus. The month of December sure seemed to fly by! As we look toward 2023, are you a resolution-setter? My resolutions typically come in the form of adding something. For example, it could be a commitment to adding exercise to my schedule or adding meal planning to my calendar. However, the book of Philippians has some great goals for things we must let go of.

1. Let go of the past and press on toward the future:

¹³ No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. (Philippians 3:13-14, NLT)

Paul isn’t implying that you shouldn’t deal with things from your past. Instead, he is saying to let go of the things holding you back. Some of us have something from our past that we don’t believe God has forgiven us for, even though we’ve asked time after time. We need to accept the forgiveness that Jesus offers and move on. We will never achieve what God has planned for us if we stay stuck.

2. Let go of worry:

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7, NLT)

This is a tough one. It’s so hard to let go of worry. But giving our concerns to God and leaving them there, even if we have to do it a million times a day, is the way to peace. Paul says that God’s peace is beyond our understanding; it’s supernatural and available to us if we seek it. But first, we must let go of the worry holding us captive.

3. Let go of toxic thoughts:

⁸ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8, NLT)

What thoughts take up the most space in your mind? Are they true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, or admirable? What we spend time thinking about significantly impacts our outlook in general. Are there things you need to let go of that you are holding onto?

Please join me in some self-examination in preparation for the new year. There is good that God wants us to hold onto. His blessings are all around us, even amidst tough things. Where are your thoughts fixed?