We haven't arrived, so FOLLOW ME
"Follow me!"In the text today, Paul writes to the Christians in Philippi, using what should be every pastor's motto: "follow me (as I follow Christ)" and if we can not say this, we need to face the changes required in our life.
Our focus is to be forward. Looking at the Commanding Officer who is Jesus Christ, and being obedient to His commands and using our blood-bought lives for His glory. We should actively forget the past, both the good and the bad, for they distract us from the task ahead.
May we today take time to reflect on the importance of following Jesus Christ by:
- Examining ourselves to see if we are still in the faith(2 Cor13:5)
- Trusting God to give life to the dead and to call things that are not as though they were. (Rom6:17)
- Confessing our sins, because if we cherish sin in our hearts God will not hear us. (Psa66:18, 1John1:9)
- Being reconciled to one another (James5:16)
- Kicking any depression in our walk with the Lord (Heb12:12-13)
- Growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord (2Pet3:18)
| Not that I have already obtained all this, or have arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining forward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their same. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we are eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians3:12-20) |
Godfrey Msiska is a minister of UPCSA, Lecturer and Head of School of Theology at Evangelical University (formerly Theological College of Central Africa).
