Good Morning Friends,
“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. 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God
has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)
Sometimes it seems like an awfully long journey
to spiritual maturity. I’ve been on the road for most of my life and I know I have
not reached the goal, yet. I have to admit that there have been times in my
life when I thought I was further along the road than I really was. God finally
got my attention and brought me back to the reality of how far I was from where
He wants to take me.
It’s such a long road that sometimes I feel
like giving up. It seems like I’ll never reach the goal and the progress is so
slow. It is to that spirit that Paul speaks here. His encouragement was to keep
pressing on, even as he was. Paul hadn’t made it, either. But that didn’t
discourage him. Instead, he kept pressing on.
That is good advice for travelers on the same
journey:
Don’t ever get the idea that you’ve made it. If
Paul hadn’t made it, I’m confident that you and I haven’t either.
Remember it is Jesus who grabbed hold of you
and put you on the road in the first place. He’ll stay with you all along the
journey.
Keep traveling one day at a time. Don’t dwell
on the past. Let it go and keep moving forward.
Lift up your eyes and look toward the goal. There
is a heavenly prize at the end of the journey. One day we will see Jesus and
then we’ll be like Him. (1 John 3:2)
One more thing: don’t get so caught up in the
slowness of the progress that you miss the joy of the journey itself!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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