We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk.
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Philippians 3:4-14
4 even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 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; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 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 9 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. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 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. 13 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, 14 I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Devotional: Are we there yet?
“Are we there yet?” Parents dread those words as they head out on a road trip. Somehow, the question adds two hours to the trip each time it is repeated.
The words of Paul remind us that we are not there yet. The journey of faith constantly looks forward to new horizons. We may well have moments where we haul out the Esky and celebrate how far we have already travelled but settling down at the roadside picnic spot is not our goal. As pretty and as comfortable our current position may be, we need to press on.
Beware that you do not fall into the opposite trap – hurtling down the freeway of life, intent on getting to the destination as fast as possible with as few stops as possible. The idea that this world is not our home and we have eyes only for heaven may blind us to the beautiful moments of grace all around us. This approach to life is a subtle (or not so subtle) form of escapism. The heavenly call of God is not out of this world, but a transformation of it.
The greatest joy of the journey of faith is discovered between those moments of self-confident celebration of our own achievements and the lamented longing for the journey to end. In those in-between miles as we lean into Christ and discover his pace and purpose the question “Are we there yet?” becomes irrelevant. We realize that “there” is where Christ is. And if he is “here” then we are “there” already.
Enjoy the trip.
Rev Richard Giesken,
Associate Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Missiology
Nazarene Theological College