{ Day 244 }

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. —Philippians 3:13-14

Beloved, this prize will not automatically fall at our feet. There is a pressing in. We reach for the one thing, the exceedingly great reward. There is a forgetting of what came before, both success and failure. Part of our offering to the Lord is forgetting our dedication and personal sacrifice. Paul counted them as nothing. We do not stand before the Lord and calculate how much we have given Him in prayer, fasting, finances, and persecution. We forget all that because our glory is not found in anything we can give. We also should forget our accomplishments. God doesn’t look at spiritual résumés. We should discount them, let them go. God will reckon them in proper balance when we get to heaven, but for us there is nothing so valuable as simply knowing God. For this reason we should also let our failures go. These can distract us more than our accomplishments. We want to be a people of one thing, forgetting what is behind and pressing to what is ahead. That’s how we become men and women after God’s own heart.

{ PRAYER STARTER }

Father, I know I have a long way to go to reach the level of spiritual maturity You desire for me. Teach me to forget everything, to discount all my efforts, and to focus only on knowing You better.

Our glory is in being loved by Him and in the anointing
to love Him. That alone gives us value.