30 Days in the Word Day 20

I apologize for having no blog post yesterday. I wasn't feeling the best and I fell asleep unexpectedly. I also must admit that I didn't read the Bible yesterday at all. This has shown me that I must not put it off until night. This has also put off my sleep and my well being.

But what I would like to share with you is what I read this morning.

Philippians 3:4-11 NIV

"If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Paul begins to tell of what he was; what he used to be. He was successful. He had it all going for him. He was a leader and the other pharisees thought well of him. He was well off. But he considers it all nothing compared with Christ.

Whatever we earn here on earth; status, money, friends, a nice house, a cool gadget, a college diploma. It is all nothing! Nothing compared with gaining Christ.


Philippians 4:12-21 NIV

"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. 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. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 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."

Paul admits that he is not perfect. He's not saying he has it all together. But he is saying that he is pressing on toward the goal. He has his eyes on the prize. His mind and his heart are in the right place and he is trying. He is running the race to win the prize that God has for him. He says we should all look at it in this way. We are running a race. I am running a race.

He says that if we are not looking at it in this way, God will soon make it clear to you that this is what you are supposed to be doing. He will clear your blurred vision. I know he has done so with me many times.

"Let us live up to what we have already attained."