Just As I Am… But Not Staying As I Am

I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. —Philippians 3:13-14

In our text, Paul simply saying, “I have not arrived. I’m still growing spiritually. I have aways to go! I’m pressing ahead to God’s HIGH CALLING in Christ.” Paul wrote our text 30 years after he was saved on the Damascus Road (Acts 9), yet he still confessed, “I count not myself to have apprehended.” 

While it is true that God loves you just as you are, He doesn’t want you to remain as you are.  He wants you to keep on growing in Christ. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been saved for six weeks or sixty years—You will never grow any further in the Lord as long as you don’t think you need to grow.

Do you know what is my greatest hinderance to spiritual growth? The answer is ME! I stand in my own way from being more of what God wants me to be.  My pride, my self-sufficiency, my indifference, and my unwillingness to ask God for help and do what He tells me hinders my growth more than anything else.

In a large prestigious church in England, a former burglar knelt beside a Supreme Court judge. After the service, the judge walked out with the pastor and said, “Did you notice who was kneeling beside me at the communion service this morning, what a miracle of grace.”  The pastor replied, “It is truly a miracle what God has done in that man’s life.”  The judge answered, “I was talking about me.  When that fellow met Christ in jail, he left his life of crime and received all the hope and healing that Jesus could offer. He new how much he needed help. But look at me, I was taught from childhood that I didn’t need anyone’s help. I went to church, took Communion, graduated from Oxford, and became a lawyer and eventually a prestigious judge. I was sure that I was all I ever needed. But kneeling beside that fellow today, reminded me that like him, I am no better than him. For I too, am a sinner in need of God’s grace.”

Yes, God loves me just as I am, but He doesn’t want me to remain just as I am. And neither does He want you remain just as you are. Sing it: “I’m pressing on the upward way… New heights I’m gaining everyday.”