Thank God for the New Year He had given us. We look forward to this New Year, not as the last Year but with full of hope and a closer walk with our Lord Jesus Christ. Our earnest prayer in our heart, should be, ‘Lord show me the areas in my life, which is not Christ – like and have a better knowledge about You’. Thank God for the Church for lifting up families, spiritually.
Philippians 3:13, ‘Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead’,
Let us call upon our Lord with repentant and needy heart then God will reach out to us and lift us up. Let us not look behind, in the context of, the gains we had in our lives, like Apostle Paul says, about planting Church, winning souls for the body of Christ but let us look ahead in our lives to be more Christ-like.
V14, ‘I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’
Let us look ahead, press on towards the goal – ‘into a more perfection’, which God wants. It is like a mountain, and we are at the base of that mountain – ‘A big mountain which has water on both sides. If we want to go to the other side, the water needs to come up, overflowing, until it is covered, so we can float or we can use a boat to reach the top of the mountain’- like ‘Noah’s ark, floating on the top of the highest peak of a mountain, during the flood’. In the same way, ‘we need the power of the Holy Spirit which will lift us up, so that we can reach the other end. This is the life we need, filled with the Holy Spirit’.
V7, ‘But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.8More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’,
As Apostle Paul says here, let us count all things we gained in the past, count them as loss for the sake of Christ, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us value and gain, more of Jesus’ nature, dying to our self. Let us put it on the altar the things that are dear to us, so we can gain Christ’s nature.
V9, ‘and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith’, 10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.
17Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.
By faith in Jesus Christ, He is making us every day righteous before Him. We can know more of His resurrection in our lives and by having fellowship in the sufferings, we get in our daily lives, we can become more Christ – like, by being conformed into His death. We are not yet perfect but press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. God has a specific plan for our lives. He lay hold of Paul on Damascus road and He showed him, the narrow way that he should go. Jesus Christ showed him the path of suffering, in which he needs to go so that he can be a part of the body of Christ. God had showed all of us a new and living way, we need to give ourselves daily at the altar. Thank God for this body of Christ in Doha. Thank God for the Holy Spirit, which is helping to die, in the areas where we need to die to our ‘self’, for the glory of God. Let us listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Have the same attitude that Jesus Christ had. God is also giving revelations about the true Christ like nature to us, every day. Also, let us follow the brothers and sisters who are following Jesus Christ.
1 John 2:6, ‘the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked’.
As we are abiding in Him, we need to walk in the same manner as He walked.
1 John 1:9, ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’.
Our conscience needs to be clear. Let us constantly judge ourselves, everyday in our lives, confessing our sins, before the Lord.
1 John 3:2,3, ‘Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure’.
Those who have this hope in God to be more Christ-like, will purify himself just as He is pure.
Philippians 2:13, ‘for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure’.
Thank God, for it is Him who is working in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure. He is giving us the desire and He is the one who is filling us with His Holy Spirit. He is helping us to do His will. Thank God for His Word. This New Year, let us submit to His Word and to His will. Thank God.
