Press Forward

For 15 years I have been saying the same thing to all of my patients. I take care of the diagnostic portion of an eye exam in a multi doctor ophthalmology practice. What amazes me is the other day as I repeated for the, let's say 1,000,000th, time for the patient to press forward while viewing their pressure under a microscope, it hit me.



Let me explain. Patient's must place their chin in a cup and press their forheads up against a bar so that I can see them properly under a microscope. Now like all microscopes if the object I am viewing is not at exactly the correct distance (really close) then I cannot see it. So I figure if the patient is physically pressing their head against the bar then they can't move backwards.



Now let's analyze this. If one is pressing forward then they are not moving backwards. It seems elementary right? Well in Phillipians 3:14 it tells us to, "press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

God is telling us to press on or forward so that we don't fall back just like when I am using a microscope. We as humans think we can do it ourselves for a little while and even think that we are not moving in either direction, towards or away from God or trouble. In reality, we are always in motion. There is no stopping to pause, our minds and souls are always on the move towards something. If we are not careful it could be towards sin and away from God.

Now God tells us so many things for our own good and if we would just stretch out and reach towards those things, no matter how little we actually accomplish ourselves, God uses that forward motion to keep us in balance, always on the right side of life.

So in our desire to not move, we have to realize that to stop is to sink to the bottom of the ocean like a shark who stops moving. He might stop but his body then sinks and decomposes. We must listen to God's Word in His Son and continually aim to be more like Jesus and in doing so we will not have the opportunity to fall back.

Press On