October 2

Isaiah 66:1-24, Philippians 3:5-21, Psalm 74:1-23, Proverbs 24:15-16

Pray: Lord, help me to keep my eyes on the prize. Help me to run the race with patience but also help me to run the race with focus. Remind me that You are perfecting me. Help me understand the road I’m on.

Read: (Philippians 3:10) Paul declared, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” Paul first met Jesus on the road to Damascus. It was quite an experience. He was knocked off his camel, struck blind, and spoken to by the Lord Himself. From that day Paul never backed off his full throttle, pedal to the metal, commitment to know Christ. Have you backed off? Have I? Are we committed, are we in pursuit, is the road to perfection ever before us?

Edify: Have you ever asked yourself, “What does God want from me?” All of us that no longer look to what we have done but rather look to what He has done as our righteousness are on the road to perfection. We are “under construction”. We are “works in progress.” Paul declared in Philippians 3:12 that he had not already achieved these things or that he had not reached perfection. But he pressed on to possess that perfection.

Practice: As Paul joined himself to Christ and Christ’s sufferings, he focused on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. Don’t let your past enslave you. Don’t let the past imprison your future. Every new day is a chance to receive forgiveness and to reaffirm your desire for God to continue to work in your life. Proverbs 24:16 says the godly may trip seven times, but they get up again. Get up again!