Devotionals
I Haven't Gotten There Yet
by Julie McNeil
Scripture Reading: Phil 3:12-14
"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus"
Do you ever feel like you need to have all the answers before you can serve God? I admit that there are sometimes when I think that I don't even come close to being worthy to even speak about Him. We all have things in our past that we think hinder us from serving God whole heartedly. The key word is "THINK". The truth is that we can serve God in the midst of our sin and struggles.
In Phil 3:12 Paul teaches us that even he hasn't gotten there yet. We should all take a lesson from Paul. Paul was one of the greatest Apostles spoken of in the Bible but even He admitted to not being there yet. Paul was constantly striving for spiritual maturity. If Paul was not spiritually mature and served Christ, then who are we to doubt if we are able to serve. It doesn't matter if you don't have all the answers, if your heart is right God will be there to encourage you and to reveal to you what you need to know exactly when you need to know it. The key is to stay in His word and keep studying.
2 Tim 2:15 says "study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly diving the word of truth." This scripture is one of the most challenging ones to me. I find it easy to read the word but I have difficulties studying. The one thing I seem to always forget to do when I start to study the bible is to pray! I know it should be the first thing I think of to do but sometimes I get so caught up in my life that I forget the obvious. We should all strive to study more and really make an effort to understand the word of God. The more effort we put into our studies, the more we will gain in our quest for spiritual maturity.
As Paul states in Phil 1:6: "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" none of us will ever reach spiritual maturity in this flesh but I will keep trying to learn everything I can and hope that God continues to use me in whatever way He sees fit!
- 1 Comment
- Tags: confident, pray, study
- Posted by: Julie McNeil
Comments
"Strive" is a good word, picture someone in a briar patch trying thier best to get out, then lets put a swarm of bees in there with them, ok, thats "striving". have a good day now ya hear.
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