Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13  "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus." I believe that what Paul wrote is applicable in the life of any Christian.  We have all been called by Christ to a new life in Him.  At the moment we received Christ as Lord and Savior, we were also called to be witnesses for Him (Acts 1:8). Some would like to say that this only applied to the apostles.  If that were the case, Holy Spirit would not have preserved the message for you and me today.  Regret is a tool that the devil uses to derail Christians in their pursuit of the prize.  We often live in an "if only" world.  "If only I had done this" or "if only I hadn't done that."  If Jesus had that attitude, He would never have gone to the cross for us.  If Paul had that attitude we would be missing the majority of the New Testament.
It is important that we learn to focus on the prize...the purpose of God for each one of us.  My purpose is at once the same and different from yours.  It is the same in that we are all called to be disciple makers.  It is different in that each of us is gifted differently and run the race according to our giftedness.  It is time for us to get over ourselves and allow God to accomplish His purpose in and through us.  Keep your eyes on the prize.

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