"Press"

Press in. Press out.

Like breathing.

In with the fresh air, out with the stale air.

In with the good thoughts, out with the bad thoughts.

In with what edifies...

Soon it is nothing but fresh, good, and edifying.

How? By willpower? Self help? Seclusion?

Simply by exposing oneself to more of Jesus. Pressing in.

Press.

When we press (purposely and purposefully seeking more of Him), we get more of Him. When we get more of Him we lose more of ourselves, as well as remaining negative elements.

Jesus makes less room for the bad stuff.

Philippians 3:12 (AMP) - "Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own."

Don't take the "not that I have now attained" as an excuse that we will never attain. That's not what Paul meant. What he meant was that we never attain the fulness, we never "arrive" at the place where we can sit back and claim we have it all. We will ALWAYS need to press. There is always more of Him to reach out for.

That's because we should be constantly in a state of flow. We give Him away as well as ourselves, so we always will need to be filled. More of Him, more Holy Spirit, more of the Father.

He fills, we give, He fills, we give......

That only happens when we spend more time with Him. We will expel what we take in. There is a tremendous amount of truth to the old adage, "garbage in, garbage out", as well as "you are what you eat".

You are the sum total of what you do and whom you choose to do it with.

Treat Jesus as a casual acquaintance and you will reflect a casual faith. Spend more time in childish worldly nonsense and endeavors, and people will never differentiate you from the rest of the world.

Acts 4:13 (AMP) - "Now when they saw the boldness and unfettered eloquence of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and untrained in the schools [common men with no educational advantages], they marveled; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus."

That's what I'm talkin' about.

They need to see you have been with Jesus. If you haven't been, well...that's obvious too.

Keepin' it Real,

Pastor Kevin <><