In His Word Wednesday

Philippians 3:13-17 " Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: 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. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us."

When something good happens to us, we tend to think how happy we are and try to think how we can continue to make this "happiness" happen.

But in Paul's words, DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE MADE IT ON YOUR OWN ! The only way these great things have happened in our lives is through Christ! If we press through life with God pulsing through every vein and all marrow in our bodies, we WILL always have God's love.

Does that mean only good things will happen to us? NO! Bad things happen also! And will happen even with Christ in our lives. He actually allows bad things to happen. Because He loves to see us suffer? NO! There is a song, and forgive me I can't think of the singer, but she sings (and I am probably paraphrasing), "If we never saw Midnight, we wouldn't appreciate the morning". Meaning, if nothing bad ever happened in our lives, would we still fall down on our knees in front of Him? Would we still see the awesomeness of all that He has done, and praise Him for it?

To be honest, if nothing bad ever happened in MY life, I might almost think that I didn't NEED God. Wouldn't you?

Paul knew that very well also. Not only did he have some good things in his life, but he mostly had bad! His life on this earth was filled with tribulation, and it probably hardly ever happened the way he thought it should!

So, let's take his words and imitate him as he imitated Christ. Let's take the good AND the bad, and just roll with it. Because we know how the story ends! We know Christ will win, and if we trust Him and strive to be like Him, we will be standing beside Christ when He celebrates the victory!

To see more encouragement and prayers, go here, for more In His Word Wednesday.