"pride won't get us where we're going"

Phil 3:7-9

“But whatever gain i had, i counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, i count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake i have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that i may gain Christ and be found in him…”

as i read this passage i get so inspired at the life that paul lived, yet i am equally frustrated at the same time.  i feel like i will never get there…i try to count everything as a loss but hours later i seem to go back to the very things that i give up.  

why is that??

so i continue reading and i’m frustrated, then i get to verse 12-14 and paul brings it home:

“not that i have already obtained this or am already perfect, but i press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  brothers, i do not consider that i have made it my own.  but one thing i do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, i press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

i needed to hear that… i don’t have to have everything together, but i need to realize that, under Christ’s blood, i’m considered righteous in the eyes of God. that is why i need Christ.  i was brought to this passage and i think everyone needs to be reminded of this…

“I do not understand my own actions.  for i do not do what i want, but i do the very thing i hate…for i know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.  for i have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  for i do not do the good i want, but the evil i do not want is what i keep on doing.  now if i do what i do not want, it is no longer i who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

-romans 7:15-20

paul is focused. he knows he is sinful, but chooses to focus on this fact: his sin is washed under the blood of Christ.  as many times as i have heard that it’s sad to say that I forget that one simple truth so often.  what a good reminder.

happy easter!

11 April 2009 ·