One Goal

Ready:   

“My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death.” – Philippians 3:10    

Set:   

Many of us create goals for ourselves: exercise daily, spend more time in the Word, be more present with friends, spend less money, work more hours. None of those things are necessarily bad, but I want to challenge you this year to have the same goal as Paul. His goal was to know Jesus. The Greek word for “know” means a deep, personal knowledge and intimate relationship with Christ. This “know” isn’t just the intellectual understanding. Paul wants to truly know Christ in the most relational way. How can he know Christ in this way? By knowing the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. How we get to truly know Christ is seeking the Christ of the Bible. It’s not a self-centered seeking but a God-centered seeking. Someone once said that if you’re reading Scripture to find yourself, you will struggle on every page. But if you’re reading Scripture to find God, you’ll find Him on every page.    

The power of His resurrection changes everything for us. It means we 1.) have a place in the Kingdom of a holy and righteous God, bought for us by the blood of Jesus. 2.) We are no longer slaves to sin. Christ defeated sin and the grave and took on the wrath of God for us, that we might be restored to right relationship with the Father. 3.) The same power that raised Christ from the dead can surge through our own being, overcoming sin in our lives and producing fruit that will far outlast anything the flesh could possibly produce. Paul’s goal of knowing Christ and the power of the resurrection truly changed his life (1 Timothy 4:8).   

Paul’s goal was also to know and share in Jesus’ sufferings. What a strange goal, right? You probably wouldn’t find that on anyone’s goal sheet. But Paul, that was his goal. Everything boiled down to being like Christ. That’s all Paul wanted. And he knew how to become like Christ: to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and to join Him in the fellowship of His sufferings. He wanted to go through the same training Jesus went through during His time on earth. Christ was the most disciplined and yet joyful human being that ever walked the earth. He was disciplined because He knew the temptations of the flesh and He was joyful because He knew the power of the Holy Spirit.   

Go:  

1. What is your one goal?   

2. What is one area of your life where you need to experience Christ’s resurrection power? Will you surrender it to Him?  

3. Are you willing to go through the same training Christ went through?  

Workout:   

Overtime: