“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14
June 20, 2025
The spiritually healthy Christian has a desire to experience God in the fullest possible way. Be honest. Do you possess a lazer-like focus on knowing God and serving Him? This is not asking if you recently had a grumpy day? Nowhere is the necessity of sustained urgency in the Christian life more vividly expressed than in Paul’s own experience. “Pressing on” brings to mind a runner pouring it on as he heads into the last lap of a race. Pressing on in the Christian life requires that we know how to forget the past (look at the previous verse, Phil. 3:13). Of course there are things we should not forget. We are not to forget God. Forgetting God is the spiritual malaise of being distracted by things that don’t really matter (e.g. swimming in too much entertainment). We are not to forget the lessons of the past. Difficulties and failures can be like irritants in an oyster. A pearl is formed. We are not to forget God’s Word (“I shall delight in Thy statues; I shall not forget Thy word.” Psa. 119:16).
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Remember this: The thought of God, ever sweet and nourishing, is to be present to the mind of God’s child.