December 14, 2024

December 14  
Philippians 3

Paul had quite the status in Judaism before he became a Christian.  From a worldly view, he was on the way up and had a bright future.  But Jesus had to blind Paul to actually get him to see things correctly.  On the road to Damascus Paul was confronted with reality that he was not on the right path.  He lost his vision as part of this encounter and was blind for a period of time. Jesus saved his soul and restored his sight.  When he regained his eyesight, he also had a new vision on life and a new perspective.  He now sees all that was once considered great in his light was not truly great at all.  
   Jesus doesn't just forgive us from our sins, but he gives us a new life in him.  This new life begins to see life not from the lens of the world, but through God's lens.  When we start to see life through God's lens sin and wrong become a whole lot clearer.  Our purposes and values will change.  The goals of our life will go from building our own kingdoms to building God's kingdom.  We actually enter the race we were meant to run and are heading to the proper finish line.  Everyone is running a race in their life.  Those who do not have a relationship with Jesus will find that they were running hard in the wrong direction.  How frustrating would it be to run hard and think you are winning the race only to find out that you never actually were on course in the first place?  We are called to run a race on the narrow road that Jesus paved for us and we must run hard until the end.  Run the race hard with your eyes on Jesus and run as hard as you can all the way until the end.  You will have eternity to rest in the presence of God.