"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear for you."
(Phil. 3:12-15)

This is one of my all-time favorite Scriptures. This is the scripture that kept me going through a lot of phases of my life.

Paul is describing something he's done. He doesn't look at what's behind him—either failures or successes in planting churches all over the place. He says, I don't look at those things. I keep pressing on. I keep going after the Lord with all of my guts. I let go of everything else. I am trying to figure out what God's purpose is for my life so that I can go on to accomplish it.

Then, he says that if they have a different mind, God would reveal that to them so that they could be mature. He said, "...all the mature should take such a view of things" (v.15). In other words, if you are going to be mature, you better get ready to press on. You better get ready to keep running after the things of God even when you don't feel like it.

There are going to be times when you feel like you're falling. There will be times when you don't feel like God is right next to you. You may not always feel the presence of God, but press on—no matter what.

There are going to be times when you get to the top of a victory in your life, and you don't think you will ever fall. At that point, you need to press on. There are going to be times when you will feel like you've failed God, and all your friends, and your family. You'll feel like you're at the bottom of a pit.

At that time, you need to pick yourself and press on. A mature believer presses on. A mature believe doesn't give up. What Paul is trying to get through to all of us is even though he did all the things he did—he planted churches, went on mission trips, was stoned, was shipwrecked—he never gave up.

He never thought, "Hey, I've arrived. I never need to do anything else." He said, "I press on, I press on, I press on." This needs to be a motto of the life of a mature believer. It needs to come off your lips on a regular basis.

I'm going to press on. I don't care what people say, I'm going to press on. I don't care how discouraged I feel, I'm going to press on. There is more of God that I've not yet touched. I've only seen a glimpse of Him. Even though I've been saved for many years, I've barely got a taste of Him, and I want more.

Notice that pressing on does not come because there are people around you who continually cheer you on. You don't always feel like pressing on. Pressing on means you get up, dust yourself off, and make yourself go after God with all of your heart on a regular basis.

Why? Because you know that when you got on your knees and gave your life to Jesus for the first time, that was the right thing to do. And you know it was real, and God really forgave you and set you free and gave you a new heart.

So you get back up and say, "He's the one I'm running after and He's the one I'm pressing on for. I'm going to keep pressing on no matter what I have to go through. I want to see Him face to face."

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