“I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14, NIV)
He was facing some real challenges at the moment. From most peoples’ point of view things were just plum awful. There were those who were falsely accusing him, and many of them were supposedly his brothers in the faith, what we might even call his co-workers or friends. And the fact that he had lost his freedom and was in prison surely did not help. It would even seem that he would, in this situation, be handicapped in living out his passion of sharing Jesus with as many people as possible. As a matter of fact most folks would expect for this to be a depressing situation.
But, interesting enough, it is not! Paul tells us the attitude of his heart writing, “I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul sees that the goal of God for him is so high and so noble that the troubles of this world don’t even phase him! Wow! So many times we don’t set our goals high enough to make it worthy to overcome the obstacles that we will face along the way and so, we give up. It is simply not worth the trouble. But Paul sees the goal of the gospel in his life so high that his present hardships have no bearing upon him except to continually spur him on!
What goal has God laid before you today? Trust that it is just the right goal for you. Trust that he knows what is best. Trust that no matter the circumstance that you find yourself in today – God will equip you with the resources, whether they are physical, emotional, financial or spiritual, to see you through to victory in Christ. His resources are most often the unexpected ones; they are most often the ones that are least likely to be tied to this temporal world. And as such are least likely to be robbed from us. But they are of the greatest treasure you will ever know. For they will see you through anything this world can throw at you.
So, what is your goal today? More importantly, what is God’s goal for you today? Whoever we are, God has a goal for us. Whatever that goal is, God is more than able to equip us for the race and see us through as the victor! Keep pressing on my friend, Jesus is running the race towards the prize with you.
Running with Jesus,
Keith