“I run straight toward the goal to win the prize that God’s heavenly call offers in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14 GW
Read: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 2 Timothy 4:5-8
The life of Apostle Paul is a study in achievement. God really has our journeys all mapped out before we arrived here on this planet. However, so many of us get caught up in the work-to-eat existence and we forget to seek God for a purpose to our lives. When Paul heard the call of God, he set aside his own agenda and heeded the call. He took 3 years from his usual program to begin to understand God’s will (Galatians 1:14-17). Then he constrained himself to follow that path, removing all excesses, and settling down to the work at hand. Paul’s direction and goals changed; and his final destination was different from where it would have been had he continued to live the way he did before heeding God’s call. Child of God, in order to go to a higher place in God, we must do the same. We must to seek God daily to make ourselves available to His will. As we do this, we will get a clearer understanding of how to proceed in His will. We need to become disciplined, setting and working towards goals in the direction of God’s will. We must leave the vicious cycle of a haphazard, vision-less life and “run straight toward the goal,” so that at the end we can say as Paul said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” You will finish well in Jesus’ Name. Amen