Good morning and welcome to Making Space for God Monday! For those of you who have landed on this blog and are not sure why… then perhaps this is just for you. God is all you will ever need. He is not Santa Claus who brings gifts and then you don’t see him until the following December. He is Emmanuel– God with us every day, every hour, every second; involved in your life and He cares for you more than you can imagine. So today I want to unpack the following Scripture:
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)
The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, has just told the people of Philippi that anything he was to gain, he counted loss for Christ. He no longer cared about his reputation, the power of his lineage, position or wealth. He counted all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. His only concern was to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.
In other words…
God was all He needed.
The real ringer; the powerful answer to his pressing on in His knowledge and love of Christ Jesus, is to not look back.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)
Friends, what often trips us up in our high call to continue to grow in Christ, is looking back with regret, shame, and pain. We lose our way when we look back. We forget that He has made a way– sent us on a good path- His path. But we all lose our way at times and it is a good exercise to remind ourselves not to look back with regret, but look forward to our future with Christ and the freedom he brings. Easier said than done right?
I suggest that you go to a trusted friend; someone who has experienced the freedom of healing and not looking to past regrets, but is pressing on to know Jesus. We all need fellow travelers on this journey and we all need encouragement.
Jesus is all we will ever need, but sometimes we need to discover or rediscover (if you have lost your way) the power of His forgiveness and the peace of finding His path.
This coming Sunday, I will be preaching a sermon titled “Pressing On” at St. Andrew’s Mt. Pleasant (at their 9 and 10:45 am Mount Pleasant Academy services). If this blog has stirred something in you please join me.
