Forgetting what lies behind…
“…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14
I have just spent five days in Verbier, Switzerland.
We were surrounded by majestic hills- the hills where many for thousand years have gazed.
The view from the mountains was truly magnificent. It reminded me that for all the beauty that the world can create, make and buy, it pales into insignificance besides the creativity of God and the pursuit of the love of Christ. The immortal life which is somehow echoed in those hills.
St Paul, who in his own world, was a leader and from the most respected tribe in all Israel, realised that an encounter with Christ would and did change everything. It made everything else appear a ‘rubbish’ for it was the one goal worth more than all the rest.
Pursuit of a friendship with God who made and makes every hill and mountain and every creature upon the earth is the one goal worth striving for. That friendship found in Christ.
Perhaps you’ve had an encounter with true deep love before in your heart, perhaps you have not? But when you find the one, true, good being then all the rest falls away or is changed in the light of it.
As we enter into this fourth week of Lent, I want to encourage you to continue replacing whatever you may have given up during this time with prayer. If you’ve not given anything up yet, it’s not too late to start! But don’t just fast from something you enjoy, in those moments of temptation that will inevitably come, fall on your knees in prayer.
I hope we can all focus on the end goal, the way that leads to a relationship with Christ Jesus and so to God our father in heaven and his Holy Spirit. And recall on Easter Day there is feasting too and great rejoicing!
Whilst staying with friends in Switzerland, I saw photographs of their trip to Egypt and it struck me that those amazing pillars, those carvings of the gods, which meant so much to the Egyptian people, are now gradually crumbling into the dust just as the pharaohs did.
So do not weary of doing good, press on towards the prize of eternal life, not the temporary goals of fame here in earth. It is a prize that can start here on Earth, as you open your heart more and more fully to God, to his light, his life and his hope for your life and beyond.
Why not use Jesus’s life as described in the gospels as a guide for your own life? As a key to unlock the door to your own potential? As you enter into the gospel story, you find as you follow, a peace that passes all understanding. You discover a deep joy and happiness, as you no longer compare your own life with anyone else’s around you, other than with God’s.
For the life you’ve always wanted, it is within your grasp, indeed it is within you, above you, below you and beyond you. You just have to ask!
So today, why not shut your eyes and imagine that love surrounding you, whatever your circumstances. Imagine that light entering into your heart, however broken it may feel and ask God to fill you afresh, or for the first time, with his holy spirit…. and be blessed!
Helen
