Hebrews 12:12-17 | What am I going to do about it?

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 3:12-14 BSB

The above verse is one that might as well be written on every wall of my heart as I find myself coming back to it perpetually. The exhortation that is given to the believer is to move forward. A large part of that moving forward is moving beyond what has past. That includes both good and bad. But we aren't just moving away from something. There is something we are moving towards. We are running toward the goal to win the prize of God's heavenly calling in Christ Jesus. As the writer of Hebrews also exhorts, we are to make straight paths for us to run on. Those straight paths are constituted by holiness.

It is the things of this world, the weights that drag us down and the sin that so easily ensnares us, that complicates the path before us. The call to holiness that is given is an instruction as to how to straighten that path. The way becomes clear when our eyes are purely set upon the Lord. Consider this proverb:

5Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and lean not on your own understanding;
6in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight.
-Proverbs 3:5-6 BSB

When all is submitted unto the Lord, the paths before us are straightened. Now with the encouragement that builds us up, with the paths straightened before us, we can move forward.

What application are you implementing?