Philippians 3:12

Some 30 years before the above verse was penned, Paul found himself on the road to Damascus with letters in hand giving him the authority to arrest any who were “of the way,” to bring them to Jerusalem to be tried and maybe killed. As he went, “breathing threats and murders against the disciples of Christ,” he saw a bright light, fell to the ground, and heard a voice from heaven saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” That was the day that Paul was apprehended and Christ laid hold of him.

Paul writes here after walking with the Lord for years, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” You would think that if anyone could say, “I have arrived, I have paid my dues, I have come as far as I can go in my service to God,” it would be Paul. Yet he wasn’t satisfied with what the Lord had accomplished in him, he wanted to finish well, using the life that had been given to him to glorify the God who saved him. Paul knew that God had a plan for his life and he wasn’t finished until the Lord took him home.

Are you finished, have you arrived, or are you ready to “press on and lay hold of that for which Christ has also laid hold of you?” If so then let’s “forget those things that are behind and reach forward to those things that are ahead, the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Pastor Doug Hardin