Our Reach Must Exceed Our Grasp

Dear Worshipers,

This can be a frustrating thing. Reaching out for that thing that lies a little beyond your grasp. It is our nature to become comfortable with what we have already attained, no matter what that is. It is very easy to settle for less than our highest aspirations, then slowly to become accustomed to what we have reached, until ultimately we forget that there was anything else.

Maybe you have experienced this in this way. You set a goal, like reading the Bible in a year. You begin with a disciplined schedule but somewhere along the way become distracted. You get to the place where you are reading only a little, but still every day. You get up late a few mornings and miss a few days. No you are reading every few days, but there is still something wonderful for you there every time you open the Book. Ultimately, you find yourself having to brush the dust off before you read looking for some verse to help you through a crisis. Partly out of guilt you return to the source of your hope, partly out of desperation, and as you hear God speaking words of comfort to you, you realize how must you have missed the comfort only He affords, which you were trying to find every where else. This can be s discouraging revelation, or one that motivates to a pursuit of more.

In our spiritual lives we can never become complacent. We must always be reaching for that which lies just beyond our grasp. That is what Oswald Chambers is saying today. He quoted Paul from Philippians 3, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on…”

He went on to say, “If we have only what we have experienced, we have nothing. But if we have the inspiration of the vision of God, we have more than we can experience.” This weekend when we share the musical, I am longing for more than an experience. I pray that all with ears to hear will hear what God is saying and see what He is showing. I pray we will see a vision of God and of our lives that will require radical transformation. I fear we have become spiritually relaxed. Chambers said, “BEWARE!” of spiritual relaxation.

Join me in praying that God will stir our hearts for His glory that we will offer our utmost for His highest, Sunday and forever! Let us reach beyond our grasp forgetting what is behind and pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus! (Philippians 3:14)

In Christ,

Pastor Scott