“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
(Phil. 3:13-14).
Paul was very aware that the things of his past no longer
were beneficial in helping him attain His goal for the future, which was now
aligned with Christ’s goal. Paul had
every reason to be confident in his past…a
Hebrew of Hebrews…a Pharisee…one of the God’s chosen in Israel…faultless in the
law. But as he walked the road to
Damascus, Christ reached down and took hold of Paul. He was struck down, temporarily blinded and his
life was turned upside down. For Paul to
get his bearings he knew he could only do one thing…take hold of Christ. It was that day that Christ Jesus revealed that
everything in his past was null and void.
It was that experience that showed the truth of Paul’s life and how he would
be transformed.
For the majority of my adult life there were attitudes and
beliefs that I thought were moving me along in a positive way. It wasn’t until God pursued a loving and
intimate relationship in 2006 that awakened me from my ineffective and
misguided behavior. My insecurities had
me press into the acceptance of others and the importance of their
approval. My fear of being rejected was
always at the base of my heart and directed my decisions. Once Christ took hold of my heart, these
things in my past no longer worked. It
seemed that many of my former decisions were centered around what I needed,
instead of what God desired. Most days
now I try to look ahead with the plans and purposes of God instead of my
own. Some days it is a strain to see how
all of this will play out in the end as I look towards the future. But as my confidence in Christ increases the
confidence in my own abilities seem to decrease. I know that as long as I reach out to Christ,
I will be led and transformed as I move closer to the day when He takes me
home.
We all have things in our past that won’t work once we press into our relationship with God. Whatever attitudes we must leave behind will be replaced with the renewal of our minds and the transformation of our hearts. As long as we are on this earth, let us keep moving forward towards the purposes of God and away from the emptiness of the flesh.
No comments:
Post a Comment