Age is a Funny Thing! (Philippians 3)
Philippians 3.12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. [nkjv]
Age is a funny thing. Do you realise that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we are kids? When I was younger, I can remember being so excited about aging that when asked how old I was, I'd respond in fractions. I may have been 5 years old but I would say, "I'm five and a half!" I never people hear people in their 30's say, when asked the same question, "I'm 36 and a half."
In our teenage years, rather than think in fractions, we jump whole numbers. When asked how old you are, the response is "I'm going to be 16!" You may only be 12 but you're going to be 16!
Then comes the greatest day of your life, you become 21! Even the way we say it sounds impressive, you BECOME 21! And that's where things begin to go downhill. You turn 30. It makes us sound like bad milk. He turned. We had to throw him out. Then you're pushing 40, you reach 50, you make it to 60 and by then you have built up so much speed on your downhill journey that you hit 70!
After that, its a day by day thing. You hit Wednesday. You hit lunch!
A child can't wait to be bigger, older, better, taller, stronger, smarter, richer. It becomes a driving force in their life. There has got to be more out there. But somewhere along the way, we trade in that passion and drive for something less. We become cynical. Complacent. Content. We settle.
Now these aren't all bad things but they become very dangerous when the same attitude creeps into our relationship with God. There is so much we don't know about God and there is so much He has in store for us. He is the God who does exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ever ask, dream, think or imagine. The Apostle Paul once declared, "I want to know Him. I want to be intimately acquainted with Him!" I want to spend my whole life getting to know Him. Our Christian life is about moving forward, pressing on, growing from glory to glory. The minute we decide to settle where we are, we cap our potential and singing the shoulda, coulda, woulda's.
Henry Varley, a British Revivalist once said, "The world has yet to see what God will do with a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to the Holy Spirit."
Is it any wonder the Word of God tells us to come to God with child-like faith. The adventure awaits us. Our best days are still to come. We need to let go of the past. Be spontaneous. Courageous. Take a step of faith and press on. A spiritually mature person is one who loves God with all their heart, lives life to the full and loves people unconditionally.
Rather than holding ourselves back, hiding behind our religious maturity, perhaps we should let our lives reflect our love for the One who has saved our souls and given us hope.
And just be a child again.
6 comments:
Phil 3:8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.
If there was one thing that needed reminding daily, it is this - that whatever I face today, whatever I have or dont have, whoever I am friends with or not, whatever issues, problems or wins I encounter..it is all insignificant and trivial - WORTHLESS in the context of knowing Christ!!
Not only does this highlight the supreme worth of having a relationship with Christ (its vastly better than the things that I consider so important - even the big ones like loving my wife and daughters) but it also gives hope, perspective, and genuine relief from the stress, worry, depression, grief, anxiety etc that can otherwise bombard life when the negatives are focussed upon.
Phil 3:13Brothers, 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, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
This is an exciting day of reading for me as this is the verse that God dropped into my heart when I was challenging Him to reveal Himself to me. I will always remember and live with pressing forward. Praise God
Philippians 3:13Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
We do not reach our goal of obtaining what Jesus has planned for us because we have to keep striving. We know we can never reach the perfection of Jesus in this world but must continue forward. We should not dwell on those things in our past whether good or bad but rather fix our sights on the future.
What is past is past and we cannot change it but we can live our future in Jesus Christ.
Phil 3:9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
And faith itself is a gift from God, not of me. A gift I have chosen to accept.
It's true. Sometimes we loose sight when we become accustom to something that our vision of the truthfully initial motive changes into regularity or 'soup on Tuesday's. When I say 'Yes' soup on Tuesday's is BORING. What I'm trying to say is as the world around us in it's majestic and cumulative evolution brings more peace; war; children; old age and more smiles we truly have more capability to have more then just soup on Tuesdays and live our lives to the fullest and enjoy it, (John 10:10). Also 1 John 5:11-12 gives us the promise of eternity and to me that means no matter how much we go through in life here on Earth our souls will never forget the good we go through and it's as easy as smiling at the next person that you bump into on the street,(especially the older people):OP
Phil 3:13 "No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, (perfection) but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,"
So often we let the past infect our future. We don't let go of past mistakes, poor decisions or unwise choices and let them haunt us causing us to feel as if we can never be free of them. Allowing them to hold us back from the richness of a life fully lived for God.
This verse is an amazing reminder to anyone like me who has (even long ago) set a course without asking for God's direction - that from the moment we learn to seek His Will in our lives we no longer need to live without hope of being part of His great plan!
What a comfort and what an encouragement to know that those poor decisions haven't excluded me from knowing the joy of being in His perfect will now!! Isn't His grace amazing!!
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