Straining Toward The Goal

Focus: Philippians 3:12 - KJV

12. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 6:12-19

For every believer in Christ, there is a set goal or target to attain, which is the knowledge of Christ and the power of His resurrection. To them that do understand this, every day is a learning curve in their lives geared towards attaining that glorious goal. To them, what they had been in the past which was outside of the knowledge of Christ even though it seemed glorious, amount to dung and it is put aside so as to obtain the knowledge of the person of Christ. those who do know Christ are built fully to His stature and are, in their fullness, sons of God. All that they do from that point onward differ not from the things Christ would do. Unfortunately, many who are very far from attaining the goal tend to raise their shoulders unnecessarily, and ascribe to themselves the title of men of God.

Paul, the last to be proclaimed an Apostle of Christ had great “achievements” as a transmitter of the laws of Moses, before he was converted. He was so learned in the things of the law that he became a foremost teacher thereof. But when he encountered the truth, he realized his folly and declined to glory in the flesh but to strive to attain the goal of the high calling in Christ, tucking his body under, every bit of the way. Not only did he do that, he also enjoined his direct disciples, particularly Timothy to do the same and teach others the same tenets also. Attaining the goal, for him, was really knowing the person of Christ and the power of His resurrection.

Christ did resurrect only because He had no burden of the weight of the world. He was full of life and love, such that nothing could draw Him down to the earth. The Lord is saying to us today that it is not enough to suffer with Christ, it is crucial that we rise also with Him in the end. A failure to rise in the end will only be accountable for the weight of the things of this world which of course cannot be taken into the place where Christ is. If we must rise with Him, therefore, we must shed every weight and attain the power of His resurrection which we must first know and understand. Only then can we be said to truly be Christ-like and therefore, sons of God.

Please pray:

Lord, I thank you for that which you have taught me of yourself. I refuse to stop straining to know you the more so that I may obtain the goal you have set before me. Help me, dear Lord, to attain the goal, by your Spirit; and please keep me always in the right track that I may not be unduly full of myself to the impairment of the goal, in Jesus’ name. Let my focus from now to the end be to know more of you, and the power of your resurrection, so that I may always obtain the power of the flight, and resurrect with you in the end, in Jesus’ name. Let the glory of sonship start to show in my life from hence, in Jesus’ name.

Please share with others. God bless you.