Daily Devotional For Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Good morning Southside. It’s Wednesday and I pray that your week so far has been one in which you have utilized it for the glory of God. When we are born, we are given by God talents, skills, abilities and most of all  – His image imprinted on us. As we get older, we face challenges and push ourselves to achieve goals to reach them. When we were in elementary school, we longed to be in middle school. When in middle school, we longed to be in high school. When in high school, we longed to get our driver’s license and then eventually graduate from high school and possibly either go to college or get a job. Then we push ourselves to find a mate, get married, have children, buy a home and live “happily ever after.” 

My point is – when we are young, we push ourselves to the next “rite of passage” in our culture. The question you have to ask yourself is this – are you doing this spiritually? Are you still pushing yourself to grow in the Lord? Oh, you may have been saved for years and a member of some local church for years, but that is no guarantee you’re growing spiritually. Please read what the Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 3:12-14:

“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. (13) No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, (14) I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (NLT).

Did you notice what the brilliant Apostle Paul said? He was still pushing himself, pressing even more intentionally to grow in his relationship to Christ. Paul said that he had not completed his spiritual journey and growth. To quit now would be like going on a long wanted and deserved vacation and on the drive there, you just stop and quit. 

I remember several years ago our family was returning from a vacation in Florida. As we got to Florence, SC, my Tahoe died on I-95 at 11:00 PM. We were able to coast to only the entrance of a rest area. We called AAA and it was almost impossible to get someone to come and help us. Some tow companies were willing to tow my Tahoe to the Chevrolet dealership in Florence but not take us to a hotel. We called several pickup (UBER) services but we kept hitting a roadblock. Here we were stuck on I-95 near midnight – 3 adults and 3 dogs. Finally, AAA came and the young driver said that due to liability, they were not allowed to carry passengers. We expressed our fears and concerns since we were stuck at the rest area and it was close to midnight. He looked around and smiled and said: “I won’t say anything if you 3 can fit in the front seat (since there’s no back seat in a tow truck). He told us to put the dogs in the Tahoe, then he cranked the Tahoe onto the bed of the truck. As we got into the front seat, we saw a Bible on his dashboard and discovered he was a Christian. He first took us to a Hampton Inn where I had called to get a room, dropped all of us off and then took our Tahoe to the Chevrolet dealership. The next day, we got the call that the Tahoe was repaired. The dealership picked us up from the hotel and we got our Tahoe back. Now imagine, after all of this, we decided to not come back to Wilmington…..to not finish the trip back home…. to walk away from everything we had, we owned, our careers, etc. Everyone would have thought we had lost our minds. 

Yet, this is what so many do spiritually. They begin the journey with Christ and but somewhere along their spiritual journey, they quit for all kinds of reasons. The truth is, time and the realities of disappointment and hardship wear us down. Spiritual discipline can feel more like a chore than a blessing. And before we know it, we can become disillusioned. Perspective changes everything. We can easily become weary in well-doing when we lose sight of the finish line. The Word of God says this in Galatians 6:8-9:

“Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. (9) So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessings if we don’t give up” (NLT).

It is so easy to become tired of the daily struggle to maintain our goals. When this feels burdensome, our minds and bodies will provide us with every excuse to sit down, take the easy road, or even walk away. The tug of mediocrity invites us to “rest” and focus on the now – what is right in front of us and forsake what we once desired ahead. However, this is the exact moment when we must remind our minds and hearts, militantly if necessary, to look up and out towards our reward – Christ Jesus. Let us not be lulled to sleep but instead fix our eyes on Him. For He is our prize, and when we finish the race and enter into our eternity with Him, our discipline and sacrifice will have all been worth it!

New Testament scholar Kent Hughes writes this:

“The reality is, the more we come to know Christ, the more we will come to sense our need to grow. And when we imagine that we have arrived, stagnation sets in. We must understand that Paul’s prayer—“that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death”—is a prayer of humble dissatisfaction that opens us to the blessing of God—and to a sublime cycle of dissatisfaction and satisfaction and dissatisfaction and satisfaction.… It brings on a life that knows more and more of Christ and then desperately wants to know more and indeed does know more and more and more and more. Spiritual dissatisfaction is a blessed state. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). Do you long to know Christ better? If so, blessing rains upon your soul . . . Here Paul expressed his desire to “know” the risen Christ because he was in the grip of Christ’s grace! Paul’s whole pursuit of Christ was Christ-originated, Christ-motivated, and Christ-propelled” (Source: Kent Hughes, Preach The Word Bible Commentary, “Philippians: The Fellowship Of the Gospel,” pp. 146-147).

As I conclude, the Apostle Paul leaves us with 5 biblical truths we need to apply to our lives from Philippians 3:

1. God’s plan for us now is progress, not perfection. See Philippians 3:12. Perfection is never obtainable in this life, but spiritual progress towards Christlikeness is.
2. The past is over, so leave it behind. See Philippians 3:13. The Greek New Testament word Paul uses for “forget” is [ἐπιλανθάνομαι; epilanthanomai]. It does not literally mean “to forget all of your past.” This word means “to disregard, to put out of one’s mind.” What? Our former sinful life. Let it go and move into the future in your relationship with Christ. Think of it this way: if you drive your car only by looking in the rearview mirror, you’re not going to get far. 
3. The future holds our hope. See Philippians 3:13-14. The Greek New Testament word Paul uses for “straining” is [ἐπεκτείνομαι; epekteinomai] and this is used of an athlete running towards the finish line throwing himself or herself with his/her chest to cross the finish line first. If athletes do this, how much more should we?
4. The secret to finishing well is determined by attitude, so maintain the right spiritual attitude. See Philippians 3:15. The word that Paul uses for “attitude” or “view” is [φρονέω; phroneo] and it means “to set one’s mind on, to be intent on.” Paul knew he could not and would not finish his spiritual race until death, but he also knew that in any race, each racer is running to win and finish well. To help us grasp what Paul means, he uses another Greek New Testament word in Philippians 3:15: [τέλειος; teleios]. Often this word is translated as “perfect,” but this is misleading. The word means “to mature, to bring to an end a current activity.” In other words, Paul was saying that at this stage of his life, he had reached all he could spiritually so it was now time to go to the next level with God spiritually. Just like in each grade of school, we learn all we can for that level and then we move on to the grade or level to learn more. 
5. There is a need to keep the standard high together. See Philippians 3:16. Up to this point, Paul has focused on himself only. Then in verse 16, he uses the pronouns “we” for a reason. Living the Christian life is a team effort, not a solo mission. As each of us maintains our own level of spiritual maturity, we also encourage others to do the same. We are to lock arms with our brothers and sisters in the family of God. If we see one of our brothers slowing down in the race, we need to take him by the arm and encourage him to press on. When we see a sister out of breath from the exasperating challenges of life, we need to remind her to look up and look forward, to press on toward maturity.

Assignment: How are you doing in your spiritual journey with Christ? Are you still “pressing on,” are you coasting or have you quit? Where in your life are you pressing on, learning more, growing more and maturing more in your relationship to Christ and the Scriptures? If you are not, then pick up where you left off and start pressing on now. If you need help in how to restart, see one of the pastors at Southside. We will be thrilled to help you.

Scripture To Meditate On: Hosea 6:3a, “So let’s learn, let’s press on to know the Lord. His appearance is as sure as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain” (NASB).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, help me to keep pressing on in my relationship to You. Please forgive me when I proudly think I have arrived. Lord, help me to help other disciples to keep pressing on together. I love you Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly