Is there anything about tomorrow worth reaching for? Is heaven, the highest hope of the human heart, anything more than wishful thinking? Reaching Forward contains 366 daily meditations that are designed to pull you out of the past. These readings will give you a higher vision of tomorrow, while reminding you of today’s simple duties. They will help you see a better connection between today and tomorrow.

Reaching Forward is Book 4 in the WordPoints Daybook Series. Written by Gary Henry, author of the best-selling Diligently Seeking God, each page offers a brief essay framed by scripture text and a literary quotation. Using the form of a daily devotional with one page for each day of the year, the book centers on the thought of Philippians 3:13,14: “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.”

Whoever you are, you’ve made mistakes. Your past is marred and broken. But you also have a future — and that future depends upon the choices you are making right now. These devotions will urge you to meet your difficulties with creativity and determination.

Reaching Forward takes us to a new place: where the elegance of classic devotion meets the tough-mindedness of today’s readers. As it probes the issues of hope, self-discipline, and courage, Reaching Forward will:

• Challenge you to consider the idea of eternity more carefully
• Help you to sharpen your spiritual goals
• Encourage you to be more forward-looking
• Show you how to use the present to build a better future
• Motivate you to live your life more decisively

Don’t settle for what you were yesterday. Reaching Forward is a book about stretching ourselves and pressing ahead. Are you ready to reach for the better things? What about the best things?

Each book in the WordPoints Daybook Series contains “daily affirmations of hope and courage.” Standing in the centuries-old tradition of the “daybook,” these books contain a single reading for each day of the year. The idea is to use each day’s reading as the starting point for a brief, but profitable, meditation. The readings are short enough to be read by busy people (as most of us are these days), but they are ‘provocative’ and ‘suggestive’ in the highest sense. Highly concentrated, each meditation provides the foundation for deeper consideration throughout the day.

Reaching Forward will stir you up. Don’t lose another day looking backward!

Read the Preface to Reaching Forward

February

• Love and . . . Happiness? (February 1)
• On Being a ‘Cheerful Giver’ (February 2)
• Devotion During Difficulty (February 3)
• Peace and Truth (February 4)
• What Do We Hope to Gain? (February 5)
• Would We Refuse the Great Invitation? (February 6)
• Are We Willing to Be Weak? (February 7)
• Broken Wings (February 8)
• In This We Groan (February 9)
• Strength from Brokenness (February 10)
• A Heart Will Find Its Home (February 11)
• Praying for Light (February 12)
• God Is Not Neutral Toward Our Needs (February 13)
• The Highest Use of the Human Mind (February 14)
• Desiring the Process (February 15)
• No Other Entrance (February 16)
• Hard Times (February 17)
• Tempted to Switch Goals (February 18)
• No Delight (February 19)
• New Delight (February 20)
• He Can Rebuild a Ruined Heart (February 21)
• Learning to Be Glad When God Is Glad (February 22)
• Think Twice Before You Pray for Justice (February 23)
• Mammon Is Our Major Obstacle (February 24)
• Love Transforms Suffering (February 25)
• Love Lets Us Be Free (February 26)
• Wilderness (February 27)
• Seeing Our Hurts as Homesickness (February 28)

April

• Determined Not to Miss Out (April 1)
• Invincible Faith (April 2)
• Calm Enough to Consider (April 3)
• Humble Enough to Worship (April 4)
• Preschool (April 5)
• Grateful for the Work God Gives Us (April 6)
• Sick or Sinful? (April 7)
• Being ‘Human’ Requires No Apology (April 8)
• Putting Pain Into Perspective (April 9)
• Everything Burns Away but the Beauty (April 10)
• When Our Questions Are Not Answered (April 11)
• Bereft (April 12)
• Joyful Longing (April 13)
• The Positive Choice Is Possible! (April 14)
• No Comfortable Cross (April 15)
• Checkmate (April 16)
• Being Lost Takes Persistence Too (April 17)
• Consequences Can’t Be Avoided Forever (April 18)
• Does Your Life Look Desperate? (April 19)
• On Being Glad That God Is Good (April 20)
• When Meaning Makes a Thing Important (April 21)
• Something More Than Ourselves (April 22)
• Professed Beliefs vs. Practical Beliefs (April 23)
• In the Midst of It All (April 24)
• Patience While We Make Progress (April 25)
• God Sees Behind Our Personalities (April 26)
• The Set of Our Sails (April 27)
• Seeking, Searching, Striving (April 28)
• Reaching for the Wrong Things (April 29)
• But What If . . . (April 30)

June

• Ease vs. Effort (June 1)
• If We Pay Attention, We’re Enticed (June 2)
• Too Much Tranquility (June 3)
• We Learn More from Losing Things (June 4)
• Confidence in Grace (June 5)
• The Wrath to Come (June 6)
• If Not Hope, Then Defiance (June 7)
• Letting Ourselves Be Reminded (June 8)
• Flexibility in Reaching the Goal (June 9)
• Whatever Draws Us Closer to God (June 10)
• Whatever Causes God’s People to Give Thanks (June 11)
• Earthly Satisfactions Can Be Misleading (June 12)
• Man Proposes, But God Disposes (June 13)
• Pursuing the Knowledge of God (June 14)
• Would You Go Back? (June 15)
• On Having Hope (June 16)
• On Giving Hope (June 17)
• Submission, Sacrifice, and Strong Joy (June 18)
• There Is No Love Without Sorrow (June 21)
• Finding Our Joy in That Which Is Right (June 22)
• All the Sweeter (June 23)
• We All Live in the Same World (June 24)
• How Much Does Heaven Mean to Us? (June 25)
• Each His Own Burden, His Own Grief (June 26)
• Waiting on the Lord (June 27)
• Does Heaven ‘Frustrate’ You? (June 28)
• Movement Is the Main Thing (June 29)
• The Most Dangerous Place Is In Between (June 30)

August

• Don’t Be Impeded by the Impossible (August 1)
• On Happiness: Big and Little (August 2)
• Which Shall We Choose? (August 3)
• Slowly But Surely (August 4)
• God Writes the Story (August 5)
• Resting in God’s Sovereignty (August 6)
• Fully Embracing God’s Will (August 7)
• The Encourager Is Encouraged (August 8)
• Anticipation (August 9)
• Are We Happy? Yes, But Are We Helpful? (August 10)
• When Willingness Becomes Work (August 11)
• No Little Jobs, Only Little People (August 12)
• The Pain Is a Part of the Happiness (August 13)
• Alone with God (August 14)
• Above and Beyond (August 15)
• Learning to Trust the God We Believe In (August 16)
• When We Think All Is Lost (August 17)
• Truth for the Time to Come (August 18)
• Yesterday and Today (August 19)
• Today and Tomorrow (August 20)
• Thoughts on Being ‘Next’ (August 21)
• Real Life Is Waiting (August 22)
• Enjoyment and Relinquishment (August 23)
• Is There Not a Greater Victory to Be Won? (August 24)
• Earthly Advantages Will Disappear (August 25)
• Only One Thing About You Will Last (August 26)
• Opportunity and Opposition (August 27)
• What Would Be On Your Reading List? (August 28)
• Ready and Waiting (August 29)
• Awake! (August 30)
• Perfection? (August 31)

October

• Do We Expect God’s Help Too Soon? (October 1)
• Giving the Greater Thanks (October 2)
• Christian Pessimism (October 3)
• Between Promise and Performance: A Gap? (October 4)
• Fighting the Undertow (October 5)
• Why Do We Dread Our Greatest Day? (October 6)
• When to Celebrate (October 7)
• Questions, Questions, Questions (October 8)
• You Hoped for It, But It Didn’t Happen (October 9)
• The Result of Refusing God (October 10)
• Imagine a Final, Ultimate Loss of Hope (October 11)
• The Kingdom of Self (October 12)
• Too Late to Obey (October 13)
• Forward! (October 14)
• What Our Creator Has in Mind (October 15)
• The Idea of ‘Spending’ (October 16)
• Disappointment Need Not Defeat Us (October 17)
• God Knows We Need Some Storms (October 18)
• What Did You Expect? (October 19)
• To Live Is Christ, To Die Is Gain (October 20)
• What Is the Biggest Problem You Have? (October 21)
• The Dead of the Night (October 22)
• Endure Hardship (October 23)
• Sheer Determination (October 24)
• Faith and Love Give Hope (October 25)
• After We Have Suffered a While (October 26)
• Count It All Joy (October 27)
• Difficulty Increases the Satisfaction (October 28)
• Love Suffers Long (October 29)
• What Will Happen? (October 30)
• Our Part Is to Try . . . and to Trust (October 31)

December

• Jesus, the Exemplar (December 1)
• The Crown of Righteousness (December 2)
• We Long for What We Need (December 3)
• Contradictory Concepts? (December 4)
• Beyond Our Ability (December 5)
• 110% (December 6)
• Every Tongue Shall Confess (December 7)
• Each One Shall Give Account (December 8)
• Toil and Tears: Now Is the Time (December 9)
• What a Servant Wants Above All (December 10)
• Birth Pangs (December 11)
• The Dawn Is Breaking (December 12)
• Reaching Forward Requires Letting Go (December 13)
• Joy Is Worth the Sorrow of Loss (December 14)
• Giving the Lord That Which Costs Us (December 15)
• The Highest Desire of Love (December 16)
• Where Is the Promise of His Coming? (December 17)
• The End of the Earth and the Heavens (December 18)
• Hastening the Coming (December 19)
• Not Only New But Different (December 20)
• Don’t Devalue What You Purchased (December 21)
• The Work of Just One Link (December 22)
• Eternity in Our Hearts (December 23)
• All in Good Time (December 24)
• The Beauty of the Lord (December 25)
• What Did Christ Want with Me? (December 26)
• Ready (December 27)
• The Best Is Yet to Be (December 28)
• The World That Once Was . . . and Will Be (December 29)
• Tears (December 30)
• Something More (December 31)