Deeply Exercised

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that which Christ took hold of me.” Phil 3:12

If Paul wasn’t perfect, why on earth should I feel that I could obtain this? When I was going through the editing part of Dear Adversity with Tate Publishing, I received the editor’s edit for my corrections/approvals. When I opened the document I was surprised to see all of the edited and corrected red marks. I felt in my heart embarrassed and lacking as I had really gone through the document with great precision. Humbly I dealt with one red mark at a time and tried to not feel defeated.

Sometimes I feel as if God is marking my mistakes with a red ink pen instead of a pencil with an eraser at the end. I sometimes dwell on the imperfect forgetting that perfection is something to be attained in the next life. I forget that as Paul was ‘taken hold’ by Christ I have been taken hold by Christ for my own walk and journey through life. Being in Christ our lives will be defined by our successes and not remembered by our failures.

‘The apostle had been apprehended by Christ Jesus on the road to Damascus. What was the purpose of this momentous meeting? It was that Paul might from then on be a pattern-saint, that God might show through him what Christ can do in a human life. He was not yet perfectly conformed to Christ. The process was still going on, and Paul was deeply exercised that this work of God’s grace might continue and deepen.’ Believer’s Bible Commentary, p. 1975

For God has not taken hold of us to expose our failures, rather to reveal His greatness.