Quest or Quagmire

3:12-14 Not 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. 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, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

The Christian life is meant to be a quest. If it is not, it becomes a quagmire.

If water sits still, it stagnates. It only remains clear and pure if it moves. The same is true for Christians. Christians are meant to "press on" - to strive, to move, to seek, to run, to fight. They are not meant to sit around. They are not meant to hang out. They are not meant to be couch potatoes! If they do not move, they stagnate. Christians are warriors, not spectators!

This is not our home. We are on the move. We are passing through. We have a destination we are moving toward. We must not get hooked in to this world, for we are on a journey.

There’s a narrow path to walk. There’s a race to run. There’s a battle to fight. There is a kingdom to seek. You don’t get there by taking it easy. You get there by pressing and seeking. You get there by working and sweating and striving. You get there by pressing on.

Either a plant is growing or a plant is rotting. The same is true about a Christian. Growth in Christ is not something optional or extra. It is part of what it means to be a Christian. Christ is ever new and He continually makes His people new as well.

Are you growing in Christ? It is not enough to be a Christian. You must grow and change and be transformed. We have a living God and therefore we must have a living faith.

Laziness and love of comfort work against pressing on. But they must be resisted. There is pain in pressing on, pain in pushing aside obstacles, pain in running hard, pain in pouring out our lives. But just as the athlete must press on past the pain, so must the Christian. Pressing on implies fighting against obstacles.

"Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified." (1Cor.9:24-27)

"Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith." (Heb.12:1-2)

O Lord, fill me with Your Spirit that I might not grow weary of my race, but ever press on. May all my idols be cast down, may the things of this world not have a hold upon me, may sin not entangle my feet. O Jesus, may I lay hold of You and never let go. May I pursue Your blessed face relentlessly and with dogged endurance. For You are the fountain of life!