February 2nd, 2014
Scripture Verse: Philippians 3:7-14 In our pursuit of Christ, the things that we held as valuable, we will no longer see them as important which is seen in verse 7. When Paul came to known Christ, the things he ha, he saw them as not being worth it. Everything he had, became insignificant compared to knowing Christ. The desire to know Christ is greater than the desire for things. The greatest wealth we could ever have, is knowing Christ. There is one thing that God wants us to know and that is that knowing Christ is the ultimate thing. God will bring us to a place where we would give up everything to know Christ. As long as we live we will not know everything about Christ but when we have a relationship with Him, He reveals Himself to us. When we come to know Christ, things begin to lose their value in our eyes. We will come to a place like Paul where everything in our lives is seen as rubbish.
In verse 10, Paul says everything has become a loss when he came to know Christ. The more we serve Christ, the more we want to know Him. Paul wanted to know Him and the power of His resurrection.
You may know someone but if you are interested in the person, you would pursue them. The word ‘know’ means to be intimate. Paul wanted to know God and not God to only know Him. It is about actively pursuing God. This calls for determination and perseverance. The process of knowing is communicating and sharing. You can’t say that you know Christ and don’t spend time with Him. God wants to speak to us and He wants to hear us. We know God’s voice because we are His children and His sheep. Sometimes in our relationship with Him, we do all the talking and don’t take the time to listen. Prayer is not only us talking to God but it is an exchange, it is a communion with God. God does not only talk to us when we prayer. He speaks at any time of the day when we are in the car or walking on the road.
There is an aspect of Christ that we will experience in our victories but there are also aspects that we will experience in our sufferings. Knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection is the language of a lovesick man. When we go through what Christ went through in His suffering, we will also go through what He did in His resurrection. It is hard to know God and obey Him when we are going through our sufferings. When we walk through the sufferings, we receive new revelation of the knowledge of God. In the mist of our trials and tribulations, we should press in and don’t give up. Don’t stop serving God because of your trials.
There is so much more that we can know about God. As we pursue Christ, He will reveal more about Himself to us. In verse 12, it is seen that Christ took hold of us so that we may know Him. He saved us to bring us into a relationship with Him that we may know Him. No matter where we are in our relationship with Christ, it is not too late to press in.
Seven Ways to Know Christ More
1) Study the Word More. God reveals who He is through His Word.
2) Spend more time with the Lord in prayer, meditating on His Word and worship. One of the biggest reasons why Christians don’t have a strong relationship with Christ is because they don’t take the time to know Christ. Surface relationship with Christ will not do. It is time to break up the fallow ground.
3) Trust in God
4) Do not only read His word but also obey it.
5) Observe how Christ works in your life.
6) Make Jesus your top priority. Anything that competes with your loyalty with Christ lay it down.
7) Embrace all that Christ has for you. Even through the moves of Christ in the earth, we get to know Him more.
In verse 13, we see that in order to know Christ, we have to forget about what is behind. This may be the hardest thing for most people because everything behind is not good. Let go of the past. This is the year that God is calling you to forget and to not pay attention to the things that happened. Knowing Christ is more important than the bad things that happened to you. In order to know Christ, we have to let it go. Today is the day to let go. We have to press on and not be distracted by the things that were behind. To forget what is behind, there are things that need to be cut off.
Pursuing Christ calls for effort and sacrifice. It calls for the removing of limitations. To know Christ more, we have to come out of our comfort zones. We have to be persistent and be determined. There are glorious times ahead of you. Your greater is coming!
