Day 23
Philippians 3:12-21 NIV
12 Not 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.13 Brothers, 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, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. 17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead!
Each time I read verses 12-13 I realize just how far I have to go and then I remember perfection will not come in this lifetime. The Apostle Paul writer of 2/3's of the New Testament, greatest missionary we have ever heard of is saying he still has work to do. In comparison, I don't measure up! The most difficult part of all this has to be verse 13 "forgetting what is behind". Paul is pointing to what is ahead or what is happening right now, today. Yesterday is gone and we cannot redo it. We all have things in our past that we are not proud of and so must of us can relate to this verse in that way. We can fall into condemnation of self focusing on all our past failures and my list is long there. We can focus on how spiritual we used to be or what God once did and miss what He is trying to do now. We can get so caught up in how we used to feel and forget that we are on a faith journey and not one controlled by feeling. We can begin to program God based upon what we expect! Perhaps we saw God move in the past and now we think we know how He will move in the future. We have the mind of Christ but we do not know all about God! His ways are higher than ours. If we aren't careful we can miss out on what God is doing just because we have preconceived ideas about how He should be doing it. We can seek God for a situation or stand on a promise and miss Him as He gives the answer. While God never changes I have learned that He rarely handles the same situations in my life in the same manner. Paul goes on in the next verse to remind us to stay true to our purpose and then ends the passage with a forward looking promise of eternity with the Lord.
Paul says "we eagerly await a Savior" a heavenly Savior who will come for His own. That Savior "will transform our lowly bodies", what a promise. Paul is reminding the Philippians and you and I of the great promise we have since we are children of the Living God. Paul is getting our attention back on the goal ahead. Eternity with Him that is the ultimate goal. We have much to do here but must also keep an eye on what God is doing and the promise that lies ahead. Stay on track, don't lose site of the goal! Press on!
Blessings,
Pastor Larry
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