(Proverbs 4:25) Let your eyes look straight ahead.

Where our focus is will determine the direction we go in life.

It is so easy for us to get sidetracked. It is so easy to chase our fantasies and emotional impulses down rabbit trails that lead nowhere.

This Proverb is an exhortation to not get distracted by every new wind of doctrine or modern fad that will stall our forward focus. We can so easily become static and stuck in our present lives, but spiritual growth is dynamic and is always forward-moving, for God is the God of hope and the future.

We must not go backwards or sideways, but press on to the future that God has for us. If we allow Satan to keep us dwelling daily on our past—things we cannot do anything about—or distracting us because of our present troubles, then our spiritual growth will stall and even go backwards. If our friends are not future–oriented and not focused on growing spiritually, then they will drag us down.

Spend today mediating on this statement by the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:12–14, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

I encourage you to keep fully focused on moving toward the future God has for us and the world.