Why Press On?

"I press on toward the goal

for the prize

of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  

Philippians 3:14

Why press on?  

Why give everything we have?  

It is not to earn God's love.  

It is not to make ourselves clean.  

We are loved.

We are clean.

It's because we cannot get over the truth that the Creator God of the universe would love us so much that He would spare us from our sin.  

Why do we get up and go to church?  

Why do we study our Bibles?  

Why do we pray?  

Why do we discipline ourselves?  

Because we love Jesus.  

Everyday we need to live in light of the gospel.  We deserved death and hell.  We deserved to be separated from God.  We deserved to not have Jesus step into our place.  In our sin, in our hypocrisy, Jesus has made us His own.  We don't need to fear what the future holds.  We don't need to wonder whether or not we are good enough.  We don't need to wonder if we are loved.  We are loved.  Jesus paid the price for us.  We will stand before the throne, one day, and worship Jesus.  We are going to see Him face to face. It is going to happen.  It will be a reality.  We press on, we strive, we push harder and harder to know Jesus and to grow and be transformed into His likeness, not because we need to for God to love us, but because Jesus has already loved us so much.

(This post, and yesterday's, are notes gleaned from Sunday's message at Harvest Bible Chapel Spring Lake.)