Philippians 3:8-14 (NLT) 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! 12 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.   This is actually one of my favorite passages of Scripture. When compared to the value of knowing Jesus, everything else is worthless. We can never count on our own righteousness. Righteousness is only attained through faith in Jesus Christ. We live in the righteousness given to us by our association to Jesus Christ. We have to have faith in Christ, believe in Christ as our Savior and Lord, to be reconciled to God. We can experience the power of the resurrection by our faith in Christ. No matter what we have been through up to this time we cannot say that we have reached our final destination or have reached perfection. We have to press on toward the goal that is in Christ Himself, LEAVING EVERYTHING ELSE BEHIND if we want to attain the prize that is ours through faith in Christ. Christ is calling us higher each day. I know so many people that live their lives bound to the past by past successes or failures or hurts or losses. We must leave those things behind and pursue Christ with everything within us. When we get down to it, there is nothing in this world worth losing Christ over. Nothing in this world that should be more precious than Christ. Even if we gain the whole world we will find it worthless without Christ. So many things call for our attention; so many demands are made on our time, resources and emotions, that it is not easy to always see a clear path through them or to place them in their rightful place. Yet we must put Jesus Christ first above everything else and reach out for Him more than anything. Only through Christ can we receive the prize set before us. To be able to reach the heavenly prize set before us we MUST LEAVE THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE BEHIND US and continue on toward Him. We can not successfully run this race tied to things behind us. Place Christ first in everything! Let Him be our Guide and to be with Him our final destination.

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