Not As Though I Already Attained …But I Press

Church is such an interesting place don’t you think? By church, I mean the body of believers. So many amusing things happen in our midst though they are sometimes annoying. I accept that the bad things that happen can be so bad they cut really deep but in all, it is wonderful to be with believers. We say and hear so many interesting things that make one laugh even in sober moments. I must admit though that some of these things are better left unsaid. No wonder the Psalmist prayed that God would set a watch over his mouth. Honestly, we talk and live too carelessly as believers often forgetting that the things we say may stand against us in judgment. 

Psalm 141: 3 “Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips.”

One of the things I hear often is believers commending other believers for doing well in their walk with God whilst they admit that they are doing badly and state categorically that they can’t live the life yet they are believers. What I find amusing is not the fact of them commending other believers but that they are okay with doing badly themselves and have all the reasons why they would be unable to do right by God. They understand their reasons for doing badly so well that they can truly never do well until they alter that mindset. Reality is that everyone doing well as a believer struggles with doing wrong in various areas of their lives neither are they on the right path because they have any extra strength or are better than the next person but they are people who have chosen to go on with God at any cost. They have decided that there is no price too high to pay that one’s life may give God pleasure.

Philippians 3: 13 – 14 “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Jesus, is calling us.”

There is no one who has attained; for there is none who is yet perfect but we have the Spirit of perfection inside us so that if we yield to Him, He will through us express the perfect life of God. Yielding to Him is tough but it is the extent to which one yields that one can live that life that pleases God. The secret is not for us to work it ourselves; if we do, we shall surely fail at some point. The secret is in yielding to Him. Yielding to Him does not require strength but weakness instead. We admit that we are weak in ourselves so that we are then totally dependent on Him. There is no amount of strength that could make one succeed in their Christian walk hence the bible says “by strength shall no man prevail.”

Galatians 2: 20 “my old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

We often fight to do right but if our strength could give us the right result with God, then Christ would not have been required to die for mankind. When we “press” that we might attain, it is a pressing to yield to the Holy Spirit so that in yielding to Him, we are submitted to God with Jesus as Lord in our lives. The truth is no man has attained, not even Paul could say he had but we keep pressing, doing all we need to do to, tapping into His grace that we might live the life that pleases God. If you are still struggling in your strength, please let go and let Him help you so that your walk with Him then becomes sweet and a life you love instead of that heavy burden which is the portrait we often paint of our faith.