My thought this morning is about this place of ‘press’. I’m sure like so many we start our year filled with good intentions and a certain amount of faith and hope to achieve the purposes of God and I’m wondering if we are continuing to press. ‘THEY’ say it’s not how you start a race, it’s how you finish and we all desire to finish and finish well.
You will notice before Paul ever pressed to do, he pressed to know Him (verse 10). We’ve all heard our doing for Him can never exceed our knowing of Him. Without knowing Him, we begin to remove ourselves from a position of humble service. We lose sight of who serves whom. It is only as we hold fast to the head we are sure to be righteously performing the works given to us. Press to know him. That’s step one.
Step two is the press to serve Him. Press from the Greek tells us this is; To follow or press hard after, to pursue with earnestness and diligence in order to obtain, to go after with the desire of obtaining. We all have assigned works to finish. We all have obstacles to overcome but with the measure of faith dealt to us, the Holy Spirit poured out for us and grace abounding moment by moment, we truly lack for no good thing spiritually, [cp.1 Cor. 1:7]. What we must provide is our will to press.
I said we all have obstacles to overcome and one of those is our past. You cannot move forward comparing today with yesterday especially if it creates within you a sense of failure for today. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown’s Commentary makes this note on “forgetting those things... behind-- Looking back is sure to end in going back (Lu 9:62):So Lot's wife (Lu 17:32). If in stemming a current we cease pulling the oar against it, we are carried back. God's word to us is as it was to Israel, "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward" (Ex 14:15). The Bible is our landmark to show us whether we are progressing or retrograding.”
May I encourage you today to find yourself in the words of Jesus, “but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father, Rise let us go from here. John 14:31.
Whatever position you find yourselves in today, make sure you are engaged in the press. Press in to know Him, Press in to do His will.