VISION AND PURPOSE

So I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Arise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.  (Acts 22:10 NKJV) 

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:12-14 NKJV)

When the Apostle Paul was suddenly brought into the presence of the Eternal, the whole course of his life was changed. In that flash of light he saw the exalted Savior, and learned that he was antagonizing the purposes of redeeming grace, and that vision altered the whole of his purposes and actions. From that great hour he forgot the things that were behind, and endeavored to apprehend that for which he had been apprehended by Christ Jesus. It was his ambition to build his life on the pattern shown him on the mount.

Years after, as he reviewed his life-work, the churches he had founded, the cities he had evangelized, the epistles he had written, surely he might have reckoned that he had apprehended; but even as he climbed, he envisioned heights beckoning beyond his attainments. Is not that the case with us, as we compare the vision of God's purpose with what we have realized? Oh, give us back the years that have gone that we may do better; be more accurate and successful in the transmission to living fact of those fair ideals, which called to us years ago! The vision in the sanctuary may never be perfectly realized by these bungling apprentice-hands. Yet God accepts and forgives the mistakes, as the mother accepts the less than perfect stitches of her little girl who tries to help her with her sewing. "Not that we have already attained, or are already perfect, but we follow on," and God forgives and accepts our poor patchwork!

What must we do to achieve our ideals? We must be more often in the sanctuary, in fellowship with Christ, to whose image we are to be conformed. With the Psalmist we must say: "Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none on the earth that I desire beside Thee." As we look on Him, we shall be changed into His likeness. As He is, so shall we become. Martyrs on the night before their agony; reformers hesitating at their tasks; scholars wondering whether their long self-denial was worth while; fathers and mothers; teachers and workers; preachers and missionaries, all these have stood in the sanctuary of God, until they have seen the vision and ideal. Then they have reckoned that what God had taught them to long for, He was prepared to enable them to effect. "All things are possible to him that believeth."

PRAYER

Grant unto me grace, Lord, that I may both perceive and know what things I ought to do and may also have grace and power to faithfully fulfill the same. In Jesus name I plead, AMEN.

God's Daily Promise

Promise #38:
I will be a real Father to you. 

2 Corinthians 6:18 (WEB)
I will be to you a Father.
You will be to me sons and daughters,’
says the Lord Almighty.”