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If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ,the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal;but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:4b-14)
Recent events have taught many, that what we once thought or valued as the most important in our lives, really doesn't. For those who lost everything in the hurricanes or floods, the credenzas were not as important as the lives of their family. For those tragic families whose loved ones were lost to the bullets of a madman, credentials mattered not. Paul wrote the lines above as he knew his life was coming to an end. He took certain pride in his pedigree as a Jew; circumcised on the eighth day according to the Law, just like Jesus; a rightful Hebrew of the tribe of Benjamin, an educated religious man (Pharisee-remember who hated Jesus more during His life?) Zealous, hardworking, blameless under the strict definitions of the law - but all that mattered not once he found Jesus as His Lord and Savior. All that he owned before Christ no longer mattered, for he had found the real thing of life and that is the life found in Jesus Christ. From that first encounter with Jesus, Paul wanted to know Jesus more, and to learn more about the power of the resurrection, and even what it felt like to experience the same sufferings as Christ Jesus, with the hope that once he left this world he would be resurrected like Jesus into Heaven.
We may reach a point where we realize that what lies behind is no longer as important as what lies ahead. Our goal should be to live a life filled with the abundance of all Christ promised to us. We no longer just want to live, but thrive in this life. Our goal should also include our telling others about Jesus until that point where we meet Jesus face-to-face in the hereafter. Can you think of a better goal?
PRAYER: Loving God, again we pray for Your comfort and peace to come to those grieving all that has happened during these days. We ask not to understand, but to help others cope. We ask for peace, the kind that only You can share. And help us see clearly the goal that You have set before us in our life. We want to be like Jesus, inviting others to join us, until that day we meet You face-to-face. This we pray in Christ Jesus' strong name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Be someone's blessing today as you share your goals with them.
Eradio Valverde
