Articles
Keep Pushing
Do you ever feel like you have a ball and chain that just weighs you down? Sin can do that!
One of the most faithful men in history, the Apostle Paul, felt that way. "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." (Rom 7:15)
Does that ever describe you? It does me!
Take courage though, Paul in his writings to the church in Philippi says it is because we are "of the flesh", in other words, it's part of being human. But even being perplexed with the problem himself, Paul encouraged them, and through timeless scripture, encourages us to follow his example. What did he say he did about it?
After explaining that he had given up his will for the sake of following Christ, he says, "I want to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection and participate in His suffering, becoming like Him in His death....attaining to the resurrection of the dead". (Phil 3:10-11) Paul had a sincere will to follow Jesus Christ's teachings.
In the very next verse He lays out His plan, one that will steer us in the right direction today when we are faced with sin, trials and troubles, "...I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me..." (Phil 3:12b)
In vs 14, he says almost the same thing again, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus".
When we are bogged down with sin, all of us would do well to ask ourselves, if we are pressing on toward the ultimate goal to win the prize of heaven.
