Wow – it happened again! I read a verse probably hundreds of times and there’s nothing extraordinarily special about it and then there’s that one special time that it just pops off the page and hits my heart. I’m left stunned.
Paul counts all things as dirt just for the sole purpose of winning Christ and being found “in him”. Remember this whole thought found in Phil. 3:8-10? But why did Paul feel this way? What was his intention, his motive? The primary reason was that he may know His Saviour and His glorious power, and have joint participation in His sufferings! Just think about it. This thought is awesome, it’s phenomenal.
If one lets go of everything in full abandonment with God, the priceless reward will be to know Jesus Christ like no other, to experience His power (power that is so great it raises dead corpses from the grave) , and to associate ourselves with his pains and sufferings. This is the blessed Christian life!
Sure, it’s not a bed of roses or a bowl of peaches and cream. It may be a life of sacrifice and hardship. But we will know and experience ALL of Christ. If you wanted to get to know someone intimately, you would want to know all about them, right? If they held something back, there wouldn’t be a complete oneness. It wouldn’t be an open relationship. You wouldn’t want to know just a portion of their life but all of their life. Jesus is the Lover of our souls. Wouldn’t we want to know Him completely?
We’ll also see His mighty hand at work in our lives – after all, this is the God that parted the Red Sea, healed the leper, made the lame to walk! Do we have enough faith to believe that He will do wondrous works in our life? His power can rest upon us making a flame in the wind! The more we know Him, the more of His power we’ll experience!
We may also go through suffering and ridicule being associated with the One who become obedient even to the death of the cross. But if this is part of the process of knowing everything of our dearest Lord wouldn’t it be worth it? It’ll be tough, extremely tough as times; but I think we would all agree that it would be worth it. Everything here on this world is temporal but our relationship with Christ is eternal! Why would we ever want to miss out on knowing every area of our dearest Lord?!
So as I sit here, I realize that my King will hold nothing back and hide nothing from me as I seek after Him with all my heart! He earnestly desires for me to know ALL of Him! To entirely know the One that I love with all my heart – what more could I ask for?! The more I know Him, the more BLESSED I’ll be!
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This is a great post to remember when one is in the thick of family life. You know, like Dad understand, sister is too busy, Mom is off doing home education, and life is falling apart because of some mean comment from someone about the standards you keep…
This is the verse for times like that! Thanks Sara.