Today’s Reading, Philippians 1-4
Focal Scripture: Philippians 3:8 “More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ”
We all have experienced loss or will experience loss at some point in our life. Sometimes the loss comes from circumstances outside of our control and other times it is by a choice that has to be made in our lives. When we lose things for the right reason we will always gain more in he long run. For instance if you lose obligations you gain more time.
In today’s reading Paul explains how success he was in his life. He lists his accomplishments and how they stack up compared to other people. He was epitome of the person who had it all together and successful. However, Paul lost all of this reputation to know Christ more. He was so passionate about Jesus that he considered everything he had before as dung (feces). He lost it all to know Christ more.
So the question today is are you willing to lose everything because of Christ to gain Christ? We must be willing to lose our prestige, money, power, position and even our accolades. Those things do not make us better believers. They actually hinder us from knowing Christ more. Don’t forget what Paul accomplished before he knew Jesus. However, he was lost and had no purpose.
After he met Christ he lost all that was important to him and others. However, he gained Christ and so much more. Later in this chapter Paul states that he wants to know Christ by sharing in his sufferings and knowing the power of his resurrection. The interesting fact behind that statement is that before resurrection power can be seen suffering must take place. We must lose before we can win.
In the Christian walk it is no different. The more we lose for the sake of Christ the more we gain. This prepares us to focus on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. Losing things for your faith is needed but we get to claim so much more by gaining Christ.
Tomorrow I plan on reading Colossians 1-4
