There are some places in the Bible where you can be so close to the heart of God’s will for you, it can be both beautiful and daunting at the same time.  Beautiful in that God would love us enough to give us clear instruction in His Word – daunting because our own heart may not resemble the heart of the saint who penned God’s Word.  What propels us forward in our walk with Christ when we are confronted with difficult times, or when the deceitfulness of sin seems appealing?

Know that God came into the world to save sinners.  We have already conquered sin through Christ, who took all of our sin past, present, and future with Him to the cross.  We are now free to pursue joy the Lord, fully reconciled; that in obtaining more of Him, we would lose more of our old self, for our good and joy, and God’s glory.  Sin, though conquered, still remains in our bodies, but one does not put it to death through bodily discipline.  Sin is put to death as you are led by the Spirit to delight yourself in God.  My prayer is for our joy; that God would continually let us see our great need for Him, to question our hearts every motivation, that by God’s grace it would be molded to seek only after our great treasure – Christ Himself.

Psalm 27:4 – “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.”

King David, a man after God’s own heart, certainly could have asked for anything, and certainly with all the wealth he had, could have sought to do many things.  His one desire was to dwell with God – to see His beauty, to know Him more and more, to experience infinite joy in marveling at the glory of God.

Phillippians 3:8,13b-14 – “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”  

“forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Paul, described as a Pharisees among Pharisees, had a place of renown, and comfort before God called him.  His life after Christ included multiple imprisonments, beatings, stoning, and ultimately martyrdom for the gospel – the good news that he had gained Christ.  Everything he lost was as NOTHING in comparison the worth of knowing Christ.  He was propelled by the prize, that God in the person of Jesus Christ would call him home to be with Him for eternity.

Does your heart treasure Christ like this?  Do you see that our battle with sin must begin with our affections for Christ?  How will you say “no” to sin, unless you are saying “yes” to God?  Don’t allow your “yes” to God be based on morality, or religion; let it be to the praise and worth of Christ.  Let your actions be driven by a heart that seeks to draw closer to Him through obedience.  He is our source of joy, our treasure, and only in Him will we find rest for our souls.  Do any of you have a heart that burns to want more of Jesus like that all the time?  Mine doesn’t, but I take comfort in Paul’s words – forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  May we all strain hard today, and draw closer by God’s grace.

Grace and Peace,
Adam