Shake Off Those Chains

"One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14

 It is easy to get stuck in the past. To get stuck in either something that you have done or that someone has done to you. When we have these things stuck in our minds, we are stuck where we are. With a mind held back by the things of the past, you may not know it, but that is not the only thing that is being held back. The things that happen to us in the past that we continue to hold on to, well they are like chains around your shoulders. They are heavy, you can't move forward with them because you are just too weighted down. You want to break them and shake them off, but every time you try, they just seem to get heavier and heavier. Those chains are holding you back.
 So how can we break these chains? How can we shake them off and walk into our future? Well, the first part of this step, is knowing that God has something for you in your future, a gift, you might call it, He has the plan for your purpose, the thing that He has placed inside of you that know one else has will be put to use, He has a special plan just for you, but you can't experience that plan if you are weighted down by the chains of the past.
 Next, as it says in the verse above, we have to press on and try, we need to push ourselves to be able to see what God has for us. We have to block out the thoughts that might come in about the things of the past, tell those things that they are not welcome, and when you begin to do that, you will gradually see the chains begin to fall off. So just keep going, keep going and blocking out those thoughts of the past, shake off those chains and move forward into the future that God has for you and that He wants you to live in and enjoy!