“Live Up To What You Have Already Attained!”

“Live Up To What You Have Already Attained!”
The hen told its chicks, “As I scatter the soil for food, I never look behind. I keep looking ahead because I know that the best lies ahead.” Paul used a similar imagery to relate his journey in faith to us.
Paul in his quest for salvation states, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Closely following on this Paul confesses: “Not that I have already attained this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
He doesn’t consider himself as having arrived. “Forgetting what is behind, and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ.”
Paul suggests that all mature christians should take such a view of things. Even so, if some think differently on some points, God will make it clear to them.
But in the mean time, “let us live up to what we have already attained”(Phi.3:10-16), and I focus on this.
The other day I passed by an aubergine (eggplant – garden egg) farm. One section of the farm had much ripened fruits rotting away. One section was recently cultivated. I asked to know whether the owner was sick and could not harvest on time. My guide told me the owner was a man who keeps on cultivating and hardly concentrates on harvesting ready crops.
A farmer’s labour is in vain if he keeps cultivating without making time to harvest and enjoy the crops that are ready!
In our focus on the goal in the journey for salvation we often behave like the eggplant farmer.
While we press on towards the goal of salvation, we should put into practice the truth we have already comprehended. We are responsible for the truth that is already in our possession.
To attain fullness in Christ (full conversion) is a process, there are many things that we must turn to Christ. But while we are engaged in that process of turning, let us live the fullness of that which we have attained.
The past of sinful nature is what we forget because Christ has done away with it, what has been gained in the present should be utilised even as we press on to get to the finish line.
Prayer: Holy Spirit help me to live up to what I have already attained; even as I press on towards the goal. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!