Keep Your Eye on the Goal

"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." 

(Philippians 3:14) 

     All of us face the pressure of more to do than we have time for.  so we have to set priorities.  We have to determine what's most important in our lives.  We have to ask, 'Do I really want to grow spiritually.'  

     Get your goal clearly in mind and keep focused on that.  Paul used the analogy of the competitive races of his day to challenge the Corinthians to pay the price of growth.  'Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?  So run that you may obtain it.  Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.  They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.  So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air' (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).  

     In our case, we have an advantage over those Grecian runners.  In a given race, only one received the prize, and it was only a wreath that would soon fade.  But we're not in competition with anyone.  We can all get the prize, and it will last forever.  

     What is your spiritual goal?  Do you really want to get the prize?  Do you want to grow to be the man or woman God wants you to be?  Do you want to pay the price of the spiritual disciplines you need to practice in order to grow?  Or will you be content to sort of muddle through your Christian life and, at the end, have to sum it all up as not more meaningful than a trip tot eh corner store for a loaf of bread?

   The choice is yours.  What will it be? 

-Devotional written by Jerry Bridges-