I just want to say to all of those who are starting this time of Prayer and Fasting with us, May God bless you and give you the desire of all of our hearts, which is Jesus. We are anticipating the transformation that will take place in our lives as we Turn Aside and allow God to Transform us and to direct us.  Each day of the fast on this blog we will be sharing together encouragementand looking at the scripture verse that we are going through together as a church body, We trust that it will be another resource of your fast that we can keep focus on the goal.

The scripture verse for today is found in Philippians 3:13,14, I really like how the message Bible says it:

"Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward-to Jesus.
 I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back."

The Message

 Like the Apostle Paul who wrote the book of Philippians we do not count ourselves as experts at this Christian life, In fact one of the reasons why we are fasting is to say to the Lord have complete access into every facet of my being, have your way in me.  Primarily because we can see and feel that we have not "arrived" and that we do not have it all together.  It really is a freeing thing to confess to God our need of Him and our need to allow Him to take over right at the start of the Fast.  Notice like the Apostle says that our goal is Jesus who is beaconing us  onward.  I get the view here of a friend who is compelling us to come closer to Him.  To know Him and to understand that there is more transformation to come. You can almost see Jesus who with a great big smile is saying, You can do it!  Remember that our Goal is Jesus and nothing else.  Not religious piety or to be seen by others, by to allow the Lord to be our all in all.  The Word of God also says that we should, "fix our eyes on Jesus" that is what we are doing in this fast and asking Him to transform us and to give us the life we've always wanted.

One last thing about this passage.  In order to receive more of His life it is often important to give up things from our past that have held us hostage.  All of us have failed, like Paul we can say we are the chief of sinners, but we have been forgiven and part of the life that He gives is one of forgiveness and grace to walk in freedom from our past.  Don't look  back to our failures, look forward to our future with Jesus.  The upward call of God, our life with Him now, and all that it will contain.  I am looking forward to this journey with you as each day we look at scriptures that will speak to our hearts from the Word of God, so please check in on a regular basis.  I am praying for each one of you as you read this blog that it will be a source of encouragement on the path.  May God bless you with new hope and determination as we together go after our goal, Jesus!