May we look forward and press toward the new thing God wants to do.

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There’s something intriguing…

about a bright-green inchworm waving its front half in the air before putting its front legs down on the place its going.

By the time it’s in that position, the creature has already been pushed forward on its back legs with its midsection scrunched into that iconic curve up in the air.

Then it’s time for its next move. It’s a picture from nature of one way of moving forward.

_{Photo courtesy Julie Blake on Unsplash}

Stretching Forward

In my fiction book Ordinary Miracles, one of the themes is wanting to move forward into the fullness of what God promises. And not being quite sure how to proceed.

And one of the themes in my nonfiction book Faith with Wings is a desire to run fully in the path God has specifically prepared for the individual. Yet not being quite sure how.

When I was writing both books, I was in a time of stretching forward. I wanted to convey what that was like from the inside, and invite you into the hopeful kind of growth that God was inviting me into.

That’s why, in Faith with Wings, I vulnerably shared the interiority of my own experience.

And in Ordinary Miracles, I brought to life the thoughts and personal conversations of a fictional character who wants that kind of positive stretching forward, too. I hope you’ll enjoy and be encouraged by these books.

As We Press On

I can definitely identify with Paul when he says:

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” Philippians 3:12-13 (NKJV).

I love the Scriptural promise that Jesus is the “finisher” of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). That God will complete the work he’s begun in us (Philippians 1:6).

And I love that we aren’t just projects to God as all of this is going on, but he desires friendship with us.

A Blessing

May we look back only to remember God’s character and faithfulness. (See Isaiah 46:9; Psalm 77:11; Psalm 103:2.)

May we look forward and press on toward what God wants to do in us and through us.

And may God feel at home in our hearts.

AmyLu

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Scriptures for Looking Ahead

Forward, Toward & Upward

Philippians 3:13-14

… forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.(NASB, emphasis added)

The New Thing from God Springs Up

Isaiah 43:18-19

Do not call to mind the former things,

Or consider things of the past.

Behold, I am going to do something new,

Now it will spring up;

Will you not be aware of it?

I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,

Rivers in the desert.(NASB, emphasis added)

Aligning with Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 7:10

Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?”

For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.(NASB, emphasis added)

Looking Where We’re Going

Luke 9:62

But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”(NASB, emphasis added)

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This content originally appeared in the February 2025 email. Subscribe at amylu-riley.com/subscribe.

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Text copyright © 2025 by AmyLu Riley.

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the (NASB1995) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Lockman.org.

Flower photo courtesy Julie Blake on Unsplash.

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