Press On

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

I am definitely not perfect and I would never try to say I am but I do continue to strive to be the best person I can be. These verses were shown to me and it took me some time to really understand why I was needing the words that came from studying these specific verses. A common occurrence is for me to look at a verse that I am not familiar with and just immediately freak out. As I began to break down what each of these verses were saying I noticed something interesting about the way my life has been going lately. I have had a lot of different problems in my past and some have been causing me a ton of grief lately. "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead", this was the first thing that stood out in my mind as being important. Although so many different things have caused me pain and heartache, it's important to forget about those things so I can move on to what's ahead. I have been stuck in a spot lately where I haven't seen a lot of change in certain things. My world has been changing but certain things have gone nowhere. For me, lessons have come a lot of the time through injuries I have had to deal with in many different scenarios. It took along time for me to finally "wake up and smell the coffee", realizing that God just wanted my life. He still does. He doesn't want me to be panicking about what is ahead or the future circumstances of situations I am apart of right now. God wants me to forget about everything that is behind me whether it was fights with friends, changes in the people around me, injuries, doctors, family, people, or even school. By focusing on the things that are behind me I am missing out on so many awesome things that are right in front of my eyes. I have some awesome opportunities to be walking proof of Gods love and honestly what is better than that!? "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." If this is the goal then those things of the past can alter the outcome or the exhaustion that takes place while we wait for the day that we meet our Maker. Yes, life is hard and God never said it would be easy, but if we keep our eyes and our heart locked on heaven, then the things in this world can never be too difficult. Now with that last part of the sentence being said, we must condition our minds to be able to handle those difficult situations so when they do take place, we are strong enough in our faith to believe that God will pull through. "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." God allows us so many chances to be as close to perfect as we can possibly be. In this verse Paul was clearly admitting that he was not perfect but that he was working towards being as close to Jesus Christ as he could. God looks at each of us as if He was looking at His own son, Jesus Christ. The ultimate form of grace is the fact that all our sins have been washed away and we are given the opportunity to work towards being as perfect as we can be knowing we are loved more than anything along the way.

At this point I am nowhere near where I want to be. I am not perfect and I wouldn't even attempt to claim to be. The goal I have for myself is to strive to be as close as possible to where God wants me to be. It's the goal that we should all have...to be as much like Christ as we can be. I mean really who wouldn't want to live their life like God? God has created us to live in His image. It's in each and every one of us. We must be willing to give up everything to live that life whether it seems like what we want or not. God will shape our lives how He wants, but with that said we have the choice to stay in control and live our own lives how we want or to trust Him and follow His plan. Even when we think we are in control of our lives we really aren't, so why fight it? We must never stop running or straining ourselves, in hopes of one day winning the race and getting the prize!

God Bless,
Taylor