Proclamation:
"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 (NIV)
Explanation:
In his letter to the believers in The
Church at Philippi , the Apostle Paul wrote
these words under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God. Paul told them that although he was saved, he
was not perfect. However, he was pressing on towards the mark for which
Christ had laid hold of him. While he had not attained it yet, he was
going forward towards it, and he was not going to worry about his past mistakes
and sins as he worked toward the prize for which God had called him.
Application:
We can learn from Paul. All of us
have sinned. (Romans 3:23) We all have skeletons in our closets because
of our negative, mistake filled, and sinful past. However, once we have
confessed our past sins, and asked God to forgive us, He forgives us. We
should also let go of them. (1 John 1:9) We should not let our past sins,
or our past successes, hinder our present work, or block our future
efforts. God has a work for each of us to accomplish as part of His
kingdom building project. (1 Chronicles 28:20 and Colossians 3:23)
As Paul said, we are all like a runner in a race heading for the goal of
Christ-likeness, we are not there yet, but we must keep on running towards the
goal. None of us is perfect, but God loves us and He can still use us to
accomplish His purpose. None of the men in The Bible were perfect, except
for Jesus, The Christ. They just believed and were willing to work for
The Lord God, and He used them
for His purposes. We must likewise forget about our past and be
willing to use our skills and abilities to work for The Lord. (Exodus
36:2)
No comments:
Post a Comment