Day 8: The Full Court Press…

“Not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Philippians 3:12

Let’s face it, none of us are perfect, and we all struggle from time to time.
But there ought to be some reassurance in knowing the Father – who sent His one and only Son for us.  Although we fail from time to time, we have a Savior who doesn’t fail us.  In fact He picks us up when we fall flat on our faces and helps us back on our feet, that is our faith on this spiritual journey.
Here’s a caution for all of us though, just because we are not perfect does not mean that we cannot be made Holy by God’s divine presence.  The Holy Spirit longs for us to become what we were always created to be – Christ’s very image here on earth.  And so He prods us, reminds us, convicts us of the things we have yet to surrender to Him.  Sometimes we might have deep dark places in our hearts that we think aren’t forgiveable or redeemable, and so we hide them away and never talk about them.  We think God will just forget about them, but the truth is if we never confront them, we will never full realize the image of Christ in us – it will always remain blurred and seemingly far away.

Press On!
So we have to put on the full court press in our lives.
We have strive to be disciplined in our personal conduct and in our thought processes.
We are made for something so much more than this and we ought not settle for being “just okay”…we can live Christ in every facet of our lives.  Paul reminds us that he isn’t even there yet, but that doesn’t get him down, he just presses onward.  This is what we are to do as well.  Admittedly, we aren’t there yet…we still have a ways to go, so don’t quit, become frustrated or exhausted – keep going!

How is your spiritual journey going so far?
Has your journey been wrought with set backs, failures, heartbreaks and hurts?
If not perhaps you aren’t trying hard enough…and if it has, don’t quit and don’t surrender – keep pressing onward!  Without this forward progress within us, we will wither, become stale and ultimately fail.  Ask important questions.  Challenge spiritual concepts.  Tackle the rough things in your life, and with the Holy Spirit’s help we will overcome!  Do you believe it?  I mean do you REALLY believe it?

Prayer:
Dear Lord, I confess that I am not there yet.
I am often imperfect and I struggle in my spiritual disciplines.
Help me to overcome.  Grant me your strength to press onward.
Make me holy Lord, so that my thoughts are your thoughts; my heart your heart.
I long to finish this race with strength and power, and not simply end by the skin of my teeth.  Help me to thrive along the way! In Your name I pray all of these things.  -Amen!