×

Warning

JUser: :_load: Unable to load user with ID: 14

Pressing on Toward the Mark

What is your goal in life? What one thing do you want above all else? In other words, toward what are you directing your life every step that you take? The question is, to what does all your thinking, willing, and acting point?

David spelled it out clearly in Psalm 27:4 when he said that the one thing that he desired and was seeking was to dwell in God's house, beholding His beauty and enquiring in His temple. Paul stated it this way in Philippians 3:14 : "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Paul was pressing toward the mark that must be reached in order to get the prize in a very difficult race. The idea is not that Paul was competing with other believers, so that he would get the prize and they would not. Did he not write this letter in order that he might help these Philippians get that prize as well as he would? Satan and the seed of the serpent are always trying to keep us from getting that prize. We are tempted every day and hour to stop running and to go to the left or right for pleasures of the flesh. Satan turned Adam and Eve from going to the tree of life by tempting them to go to the tree whose fruit God had forbidden man to eat. Temptations abound and surround us. We must put pressure upon ourselves to seek the prize Paul has in mind.

What Paul wanted, and what we must want, he already listed in the preceding verses. He longs for the resurrection of his body, so that with body and soul he may be with Christ in the blessed fellowship of a life of love toward God in His heavenly kingdom. He is not merely interested in escape from the curse which is upon mankind because of sin. He wants to be spiritually perfect and to serve God perfectly with a resurrected body that cannot sin.

Is that your desire? Are you pressing on to such a perfect life? There is no prize more valuable and enjoyable than that. To be like Christ in the sense of being as holy as He is in His glorified human nature is the most wonderful prize that there is.

The child of God will be satisfied when he awakes with God's holiness.

Read: Psalm 17

Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism

Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:

Jeremiah 42 ; Jeremiah 43 ; Jeremiah 44:1-23 
2 Timothy 2:1-21 
Psalm 92:1-93 
Proverbs 26:3-5 
****
Quote for Reflection:

"Every true prayer is a trumpet against secularism and an opening of the door to the reality of the glory of the power of the risen Christ to flood into our entire situation.  The key to life’s meaning and the key to true prayer is God first, mankind second." ~ D. Kelly

Last modified on 23 October 2018

Additional Info

  • Date: 23-October

Leave a comment

back to top

Contact Details

Denomination

  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Reading Sermon Library
  • Taped Sermon Library

Synodical Officers

  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Interim)
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Synodical Committees

  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Contact/Missions

  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Classical Officers

Classis East
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Classis West
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.