“I press on to . . win the [supreme and heavenly] prize.” Philippians 3:14 AMP.
A sovereign grace is balanced with a severe discipleship.
My thoughts and comments today are about “no turning back.”
Onward and upward is a good plan for a Godly life. Life is not very well lived, always looking in a rear view mirror. For most of us our lives are a mixed bag of experiences. Whatever your history – good, bad, or irrelevant – any focus there is misplaced and restrictive. Be grateful for the good, repentant of the bad, and dismissive of the irrelevant. In God’s plan, there are always better things ahead for you than are already behind you. In God’s grace, you are somebody, going somewhere, doing something of eternal importance. In God’s purpose, you find true significance and security.
When Paul’s sight was restored after his radical encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road, he saw his life more clearly than ever he had. Read Acts 9:3-18/ Philippians 3:4-12 NIV. In such an encounter with God, your history is redeemed, your ministry determined, and your destiny clear. Those things do not “happen to you;” they happen with your cooperative obedience. Paul explained the process this way, “Work out [to its expected conclusion] your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12-13 NKJV.
You must be a willing participant and become an obedient partner with God in the process. Salvation is accomplished in a moment of belief; soul transformation is a process, progressively achieved across a lifetime of surrender and submission. Usefulness in the Kingdom of God requires purpose.
For Paul, the way forward was clear, “I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the [Heavenly] call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind . .” Philippians 3:12-15 NKJV. Forgetting, reaching, pressing – the past is past; the present demands priority; the future requires effort and urgency; the reward is eternal and incomparable. Missing that, a life is wasted.
You lose your way forward when looking back. To one who said, “I will follow You,” Jesus was direct and clear, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God.” Read Luke 9:62 NIV. A sovereign grace is balanced with a severe discipleship. Such truthfulness clashes with short attention spans and lifestyles of keeping all options open.
You can feel Paul’s pain and imagine his tears while writing these words, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed . .” 2 Timothy 4:9 NKJV. For Paul, there were no regrets, no second thoughts, no other options, no turning back. You best understand Paul by knowing his singular, life-long passion, “That I may know Him in the power of His resurrection and in the fellowship of His sufferings . .” Philippians 3:10 NKJV. Jesus was clear, “If any man desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” See Luke 9:23-25 NKJV.
My prayer for you this day is that you press forward without doubt or distraction.