A good friend once asked me if I truly believed I was going to heaven. This morning as I was reading Paul's letter to the Philippians, that question crossed my mind again.
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Phil 3:13,14
This morning, as I look back into my life, I do not have to search so far to find shame. So someone please tell me also, how do we walk this Christian walk shamelessly.
verse 17
"Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk, so as you have us for an example." Phil 3:17
If Paul can forget his past and cling on his faith on Christ, we are beseeched by him also to do the same. Just like Jacob in the night before meeting Esau and his armed men...
"Such will be the experience of God's people in their final struggle with the powers of evil. God will test their faith, their perseverance, their confidence in His power to deliver them. Satan will endeavor to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless; that their sins have been too great to receive pardon. They will have a deep sense of their shortcomings, and as they review their lives their hopes will sink. But remembering God's mercy, and their own sincere repentance, they will plead His promises made through Christ to helpless, repenting sinners. Their faith will not fail because their prayers are not immediately answered. They will lay hold of the strength of God, as Jacob laid hold of the Angel, and the language of their souls will be, "I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me." (Ellen G. White. Patriachs and Prophets p. 202)
Let's commune with our Heavenly Father this morning and ask for forgiveness, and for the faith of our Lord and Savior and Friend: Jesus Christ, asking Him to continue to abide with us daily and never let us go.
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