Pressing On - Philippians 3:7-10

By Shawn Watts

What is the source of our life? Being? Purpose? These were some of the relevant questions raised while listening to Pastor Alan. On a higher level, the answers to questions like these lie with where each of us believe life started. Some believe humans are a result of some coincidence, we just happened. I would challenge that view, in that when we look at our lives there is so much that is answered with prayer and faith in Christ.

People look at Christians like we are told “how to live”. We are not told how to live, we are invited on a journey that leads us on a road specifically set out for us by our Creator. We are free to explore what being in Christ is, how to develop it, how to spread the Word, but the center is the important piece from which all of our journeys begin.

The center of life, our journey, our being is GOD. Period. When we struggle people ask “how God could let this happen to me?” When this is the thought, I would suggest that God is not “letting things happen” to us, but inviting us to be resilient, to learn and to ultimately find a stronger faith in God, Jesus, the Spirit.

With my life personally, I look at the day to day struggles I have and when I am “asleep” I think the world is against me, God is against me. Why can’t I be wealthy? Own a house? Drive a Corvette (my favourite)? Then I remember that when I was born, my left lung collapsed and doctors didn’t expect me to survive beyond a mere 6 hours of being in this world. I live with permanent scars that remind me daily that life was a struggle from birth, but I don’t see it as a reason to blame God, I see it as a way to take the Word to others.

However bad life may seem, I am reminded that life for me could have ended as quickly as it began. So, why did God allow me to survive? Because he had work for me to do, by being in struggle I learn each day to lean on him. I have learned to leave my struggles with him daily and start each day fresh, going out into the world and bringing more people to him. As much as our struggles seem bad, remember this, there are way too many who don’t know Christ.

God longs for this personal relationship with each of us, he never promises it won’t have peaks and valleys, but he promises it to be filled with love. It is up to each of us to make that decision, seek knowledge, question the source of life, and decide is it conformity or a desire to know our Creator that drives us. We will struggle, but in those moments of confusion, it is our challenge to seek and find the words God is speaking to us in that moment. When we find that source, attain that knowledge and realize it is not about conformity, but about having a the most loving relationship with our Creator I am confident that in that moment we will find the joyful life we all seek. For those finding themselves worrying, I like to remember this verse:
Matthew, 6:25-27

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

 

 
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