I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14
A group of young people were on an outing in the mountains in California. One night, they made their camp in the middle of a dry riverbed because it provided some level of shelter from the winds and a smooth place to set up their tents. During the night, an approaching earth-shaking rumble and roar woke the group leader, and he realized that a flash flood was rushing down the riverbed to their location. He also realized that it would be impossible for the group to all safely reach higher ground. He shouted for all members of the group to stand up, hold hands tightly, brace themselves, and lean upstream toward the coming flood. The wall of water hit the group and broke over them, almost pushing them off their feet. But they held, and the flood crest quickly passed, leaving the group wet and shocked by the experience, but safe. By unitedly pressing toward the flood, they had survived. They were like the apostle Paul’s acceptance of the challenge that God offered to him.
Paul speaks of a prize, which he calls the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. This is a great and eternal prize. This is well worth striving for. But it will not be easily obtained. Nobody ever said the life of a victorious Christian is to be easy and comfortable. God never called us to the proverbial bed of roses. The Bible refers to a rest for the people of God, but it is not a rest that we enter into in this life but the next. Christians who relax and take it easy have no hope of obtaining the prize that was to attractive to the apostle Paul, and that has been so attractive to the great heroes of the faith down through the centuries. The casual Christian life does nothing to advance the kingdom of our Lord, and is therefore a waste. But the life that is lived in obedience to the Scriptures and in the zeal of following in the footsteps of our Lord is a life that is filled with challenges and that leads to great and eternal rewards.
Paul and the other apostles were willing to lay down their lives in service to the Lord Jesus. So were many others of the early Christian leaders, and untold numbers of Christians who paid for their faithfulness with martyrs’ blood, who poured out their lives in selfless service to the Lord and His people, who boldly carried the Gospel to dangerous and unpleasant corners of the planet, who deprived themselves of the comforts and pleasures around them so they could pour out their resources to those in need. None of these saints have been the losers.
Today’s challenge is to press toward the mark that God will set before us. It is for certain that it will not be easy. But it is even more certain that it will be more than worthwhile. -Jim MacIntosh