6 December 2015 + Love Dare Day 8

Prayer
      3. Seeking Intimacy with God

Scripture:

• Philippians 3:10-14

Observations:

I'm gonna backtrack to verse 8 to start.

Paul starts off saying that, because of his relationship with Christ, everything else is of no or negative value to him. He has suffered the loss of many such things in exchange for gaining Christ, being found in Christ and receiving the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ from God.

That's verses 8-9.

In verses ten and eleven, we see why Paul holds to such an ideal:

• That he may know Christ and the power of his resurrection
• That he may share his sufferings, ultimately dying for Christ
• That he may receive the resurrection from the dead

From 12 to 14, Paul is then clarifying his above statement and sharing his perspective

• He recognises that he has not obtained this [the above two passages]
• He recognises that he is not perfect
• He presses forward, though, to claim the above because he is found in Christ - Christ has claimed him
• He considers everything given by God as not belonging to him, but given to him.
• He then offers his perspective and his attitude:
• Pressing on towards the ultimate goal of Christ, for the prize that waits beyond

In breaking the passage down as such, though, I think we miss a lot of the overarching, contextual clues.

This passage is talking about coming to know Christ in greater intimacy, knowing his suffering and sharing in his death and resurrection. This is our goal which Paul says he presses on towards.

Application:

This one is both plain and not.

We have three elements modeled for us as believers. First, we are shown that intimacy with God doesn't come from our religious actions and obeisances. Instead, it comes from seeking God first, in faith. Second, we see that this righteousness from God enables us to grow in intimacy with God, seeing the weight of his sacrifice and seeking to become increasingly like him. Third, we are told to make this righteousness our own, not merely assuming we have, pushing forward in life and struggles with God as our focus and end goal

It's easy to say all this and leave it at that. As someone seeking to overcome sin, I can vouch that many times, we grow tired. We get fatigued. We get discouraged. We lose focus of God in the midst of the battle, focusing solely on the sin we're fighting  and find ourselves frustrated or burnt out.

~ ~ ~

The Love Dare

Day 8: Love Is Not Jealous

Well, this is more about envy than jealousy.

Envy is wanting what someone else has

Jealousy is not wanting others to have what you have

"Because love is not selfish and puts other first, it refuses to let jealousy in.  It leads you to celebrate the successes of your spouse rather than resenting them."

This isn't a major struggle for me, but it's still something that could be worked on, becoming more genuine in my praise and celebration of my wife's successes.