Pressing Toward the Goal

Philippians 3:12-14 

¹² Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. ¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

This portion of scripture is paramount for our understanding of just how we are to approach living this Christian existence and live in a victorious state of mind, even though we may find ourselves in seemingly impossible situations to have a consistently victorious walk with Him(Christ). We may always press onward with Jesus, we are in an age of grace and much grace has been given to this generation, even abused I must say. We do not want to be guilty of abusing our Lord, but we must not allow ourselves to stay in a state of condemnation and/or unforgiveness. This is a state of mockery of our Lord's sacrifice. We must deal with the besetting sin(s) and move where? MOVE TOWARD THE GOAL! We must move toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus(Our Lord). This is not to say we accept sinful behavior or desires,but we must not be sidetracked by them either.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.(Romans 8:1) We must not place our focus on sin, but rather ON CHRIST! We must move forward, pushing sinfulness to the side. I liken this to a defensive end in American football, his goal is to get the offensive blocker out of the way and rush toward the quarterback to tackle him and stop the offensive play with a loss of yardage. If he fails on one play he will try the harder on the next until he accomplishes his goal, sometimes there are many failures before success. We must accomplish our goal of modeling Christ in our lives, learning obedience through those things we have suffered (whether self-inflicted or not), and after asking our Lord's forgiveness for the failure(s), move on!

I am sorry to see so many that have quit living the faith in Christ because of guilt or just acceptance of fleshly pleasures. These are of most people miserable within themselves, knowing the physical world is no substitute for the life of obedience to our Father. Peace, joy, and assurance within are far more desirable for the believer than temporary belongings. There can never be anything in this world that will satisfy the true believer in Christ, except fellowship with Him. Even in His suffering, we find a glorious resurrection! I remember the words of a true man of God, Pastor B.H.Clendennen, "there is more in the resurrected life (of Christ) than in the original life." We must press onward toward that goal of the resurrected life.