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. (Philippians 3:13-14)
Do you ever find yourself in a spiritual rut? Maybe the daily disciplines of waking up and reading your Bible everyday and praying have been feeling stale. You don’t approach worship or time with God with the same energy and excitement that you used to. Well, maybe the issue you’re having is that you aren’t focused on a particular goal. For example, I often find that when I have a clear goal in mind that I want to achieve my time, energy, and resources aren’t wasted. Usually, a clear goal helps me focus all that I have on achieving that goal. So what’s the goal in the Christian life?
For Paul, the goal was clear. In Philippians 3:13-14 Paul says this, “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.” In other words for Paul, he forgot what was behind him. Anything that was not advancing him toward his ultimate goal, which he calls “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,” he left behind. A few verses earlier Paul said that he counted everything “as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus my Lord.”
For Paul, anything that took away from him knowing Jesus more in his life he laid aside. Paul would also pursue things that allowed him to know Jesus more fully and experience salvation in his life. He is able to do these things because he had a goal that he wanted to achieve. So if you are finding those spiritual disciplines are becoming dry, remember the goal of the Christian life. To know Christ more fully. And the good news, that goal has already been secured in Christ Jesus.