“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” ~Philippians 3:12.
We are to press on. We are not perfect, and we won’t do a perfect job for Jesus; but we belong to Him. Jesus continually makes intercession for us in heaven because we are His! PRAISE GOD!! Our victory is secured in Him through faith – not of ourselves, should any boast.
“Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ.” ~ Philippians 3:8.
Very few of us living in America have “suffered the loss of all things” for Christ; but crushing persecution was part of everyday life for believers in the early church (as it is for believers in many areas of the world today):
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” ~ Romans 8:35-37
The greatest encouragement for the believer is that troubles do not separate us from the love of Jesus. Quite the opposite is true:
“For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~ Romans 8: 38-39
No, we are not perfect, but we are to press on, because nothing we do (or don’t do) can separate us from our Messiah. He is holding us up. We are not holding Him up!
The next posting of Encouragement - “see pg 289” could also be titled, Oh! By the Way…
Original post at Importantstuff.live on 02/20/2016.
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