KEEP GROWING

Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. - Philippians 3:14

Some people say they don't want to go to church because the church is full of hypocrites. They will identify any Christian who falls short as a hypocrite.

If you do or say anything that doesn't measure up to your faith as a follower of Jesus, then you are immediately branded that way.

But just because you believe something and don't always live up to it doesn't mean you are a hypocrite.

In fact, that doesn't mean you are a hypocrite at all. What it does mean is that you are a human being. No one measures up all the time to the very high standards of God.

We all fall short of the glory of God-again and again. We are imperfect people serving a perfect God.

Even the great apostle Paul admitted this struggle: "I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it.

Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it" (Rom 7:15-17).

That wasn't Paul's everyday experience, but it was a candid admission. Nor should it be used as a justification to say we always will be struggling in this manner and therefore shouldn't even try.

Paul also wrote, "I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me" (Philippians 3:12).

The further you go in the Christian life, the further you will realize you need to go. That is the mark of a genuine, growing Christian.

Prayer: Lord, help me to keep on growing in my walk with You.

Scriptural Reading: Philippians 3:12-21