Phil. 3 got me through it

Philippians 3 is worthy of my praise and my attention. This chapter of the Bible got me through it all. It got me through everything and was a significant part of the turning point in my life when I was 18 years old and truly experienced a full surrender of my life to our Jesus.

My freshman year of college, I lost myself and who I was and what I stood for. I leaned so much on being "perfect" and being the perfect Christian girl who everyone liked and always did the right thing, leaned so much on my own understanding and on myself (when, really, I am nothing, NOTHING without or apart from Christ). Turns out that I am not enough (we never are nor will be) and I fell as soon as I entered into my first semester at TCU. I ran around with the wrong friends, partied and drank, kissed too many boys, never read my Bible, stopped going to church, and then one nasty event occurred at the end of my semester that did it for me. It was the lowest point of my life, the farthest I'd ever felt from God or had let myself fall away from Him. It was Philippians 3 that got me through it.

"Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in CHrist, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow i may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that i have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own."

Man. All of that wordly and earthly stuff I had obtained or gotten involved in or used to define me, i considered LOSS because of Christ and the surpassing value of knowing Him. And what is cool is that it says "not that I have already obtained this or have reached the goal..." I love this because I feel as Christians we constantly are striving towards some level of perfection, which is good, but it can be hindering in a way because we can either A) get discouraged that we will never get there and start beating ourselves up, focusing too much on what we DON'T do instead of what we DO do for the Kingdom, or B) we can think we've gotten to a good place and be complacent and stop seeking Him, getting too comfortable. It's cool that Paul, one of the most Godly men to ever walk this earth, hadn't even reached the goal yet...and it's okay...because CHRIST JESUS HAS MADE ME HIS OWN. I love love love love love that verse. My goodness what a beautiful thing.

Christ Jesus has made me His own...He's made you His own...we are His. We are the Lord's.