Part 3 of A Winning Hand

The Apostle Paul understood that even though he had achieved all of what his culture considered success, there was something that kept him from finding true satisfaction in life. He writes about having obtained success in many areas, in the area of religious zeal, in the area of the law, in the area of status and position in life, all of these he was either born into or have achieved by diligence in study and zeal in commitment. However, all these compared to reaching out for a closer relationship with Christ is nothing. When writing about his successes the Apostle Paul says this:

Philippians 3:3-8 (GNT)

³ It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies.⁴ I could, of course, put my trust in such things. If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies, I have even more reason to feel that way.⁵ I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee,⁶ and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault.⁷ But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ's sake.⁸ Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ.

He continues by telling us of the discovery he has made that allows him to feel so passionately about something that he would throw away all he has and embrace a life challenged with one hardship after another.

Philippians 3:9-11 (GNT)

⁹ and be completely united with him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith.¹⁰ All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death,¹¹ in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.

Paul later writes about discovering something of much more worth and value than status or station and his pursuit of it. He then makes this proclamation:

Philippians 3:12-14 (NKJV)

¹² 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. ¹³ 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, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

“It's not what you are willing to do that will make you successful. It's what you are willing to do without until you get there.” ~Daniel Waldschmidt~