Press On

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS

PRESS ON

Phil 3:12-14

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.

NIV

We are picking up in the middle of this whole thought of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ and not through works or in the case of Paul, through the Law, which is works. We just saw who he was in the past, the Hebrew of Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, of the people of Israel, circumcised on the eighth day, a Pharisee in regards to the law and as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. We also saw how he now considers all that rubbish compared to the righteousness in Christ. But he is also saying he has not attained perfection yet. He has not fully reached being the perfect little Christian, pure in every way. We have to be careful not to have the attitude that we have reached that state of being a perfect Christian. We have encountered some believers who seem to have that attitude or at least project they're being without sin. But we know the truth, no one in this world, no matter how many years they have been a believer, is completely faultless. We know one thing for certain, we have not yet attained perfection. We admit, sin still resides in this body. But we also know we have been completely forgiven, yet we do not decide to sin just because we have been forgiven. We make every effort to keep from sinning, but we just fail. However, as Paul makes the point, we forget the past, we cannot live in the past, in our failures, in the sin we committed yesterday, or the day before that. There are others who do a good enough job of reminding us of our past failures. It is difficult enough to forget them, but we do not need to be reminded or remind others of their past indiscretions. We all should be living together in this forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. Each day has its own challenges, we do not have to be living in yesterdays.  We have often said to others, as we believe, if we are chained to our past, we cannot move into our future. This is what Paul is saying in other words, forgetting that which is behind and straining toward that which is ahead. We cannot do anything about our past, even the past of yesterday. Sure we can learn from our past failures and make an effort not to repeat the same mistake, the same sin again and again, but the fact remains we just might, but we cannot live to accept that as the norm.  We need to strain toward that which is ahead. We need to be focused on doing that which is right and not on that which is not.  We need to press on, making every effort each new day to be the person of God, the child of God we should be. We need to attack each new day with the attitude that this day is the day the Lord has made and that we will be glad and rejoice in it. Tomorrow is not here yet, but we have today. Someone once said that yesterday is a canceled check and tomorrow is a promissory note, but today is cash in hand and we need to spend all of it, for we cannot take any of it forward. At the end of each day, what we have not spent, we lose. But, in regards to spiritual matters, we press on toward that mark, the finish line. We press on toward the goal of heaven. We keep on keeping on, always looking forward. Yes, we have the memories of the past, the far distant past as well as those of yesterday. But again they do not define our future, each new morning is another day to rejoice in our Lord as we live in his compassion and faithfulness. So we press on.

Lam 3:22-24

22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

NIV