Have you ever felt like you wanted to give up?
As I prayed with this question, a memory floated up from a long time ago. I remembered an activity from our youth group when I was growing up. It was an imaginative story in which all the teens had to imagine going single file along a very narrow ledge in a cave, which had a steep drop off.
The task was to line our group members up in verbal order as we envisioned scaling along the cave wall on this narrow ledge to freedom. We had to decide who would go first, second, in the middle, toward the end and the last person at the end of the line.
One of the girls volunteered to be last. Instantly the husband-and-wife counselors for the youth groups said “No.” They said that she would be too quick to give up. The male counselor volunteered to be last because he was certain that he would not give up. And he could encourage anyone along the way that was tempted to give up. He was also strong enough that if he had to, he could carry reluctant people on the journey out of the cave.
The Scripture
It is so easy to feel overwhelmed with life, healthy routines, loneliness, and the ordinary tasks of daily living. In our text from Philippians 3: 4b-14, Paul encouraged the people to press on! Onward! “Do not give up,” Paul stated. His words are a bit harsh. There is an urgency in his writing. His style is designed to shake his hearers and readers out of complacency in their faith.
The Judaizers insisted that the Gentile could not be saved unless they were circumcised. Paul did not believe this. Have you ever noticed that sometimes, we in the Christian church insist that our beloved traditions are the only way to participate in the church?
Paul, really, really wanted the Philippians to know circumcision was not required! Paul urged believers to relationship with Jesus. That is not just knowing about Jesus, but truly to have a lifelong formative journey of faith with Jesus. This kind of faith is one that grows and matures every day of our earthly life.
Knowing Christ is not only feeling his presence but is living our love for God out loud through our daily engagement with others. To know Christ is to allow our love for God to impact how we speak and the tone of our voice. The attentive listening, giving our self to others, and our encouragement of the other to become their very best God love, is all part of knowing Jesus.
In the biblical sense, knowing God is to be aware of God’s will AND to desire to live God’s will which is inclusive of a willingness to OBEY him. True obedience to God, is costly. It is a lifelong, life-shaping journey so that we gain more and more Christlike character and nature as we engage others, self, and God.
How do we do this?
Paul stated, “Forgetting what is behind and straining forward toward what is ahead!” Are we able to forget what was? Sometimes that is a difficult thing. We have our own expectations, hopes, and dreams, that we really, really may not want to release and forget.
Are we able to forget what was?
Are we able to forgive ourselves, receive forgiveness, and stop rehearsing past mistakes?
Obedience is a life shaping process! Our faith is a journey each day of our earthly life, regardless of our chronological age. As long as we have breath, God may form our hearts, minds, words, and actions, with the love of God’s compassion, justice, and mercy.
Once our eyes and heart are opened to our own weakness on this faith journey, we are invited to let our weakness becomes a pathway to humility. St. Teresa of Avila a 15 century Carmelite reformer, wrote:
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
― Teresa of Avila
Today’s Prayer Practice
We are invited to move from humiliation to humility. This takes slowing down. Turning our full attention to God. And examining our interior motivations and lifestyle.
Today you are invited to the Lord’s Prayer Examen. This is done by taking the Lord’s prayer phrase by phrase as an Examen of Consciousness. (For alternative instruction, please see page 157 in The Advent of God’s Word: Listening to The Divine Whisper, Brenda Buckwell, Skylight Path Publishers, 2015.)
For today, please pray:
1.Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; Consider how you have hallowed, honored, and praised God’s name through this past week with your daily interactions with others?
2.thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Consider, God has chosen you to be God’s hands, feet, voice, and hug in the world. How are you assisting God’s kingdom coming on earth? How are you a peacemaker?
3. Give us this day our daily bread. Consider how and when God has provided for all your needs, both large and small?
4. And forgive us our trespasses, Consider how and when has God forgiven you?
5. as we forgive those who trespass against us. Consider how and who have you forgiven?
6. And lead us not into temptation; Consider when you have been tempted – maybe to anger, jealousy, fear, lukewarm faith etc. How and when have you been tempted?
7. but deliver us from evil. Consider when you have been delivered by God’s presence, love, and grace from evil?
8. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Consider how you celebrate life with God?
Amen.
What three goals for your faith journey and your love of Christ are you willing to lean into this week to become even more Christlike in the moments of your life? Onward in your faithing of God with deepest love!
Enjoy praying.
