From The Confidence Factor – Thomas B. Sims

One Thing – Unifies Our Purpose

Philippians 3:13-14: Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ   Jesus.

What if you had to leave everything behind except one thing?

What if you had to sort through your prized possessions and you only had a few minutes to make the decision? The storm is coming and you can only carry one thing with you.

What if you had to surrender all your trophies, all the reminders of your past success? What if your most cherished disappointments – that’s right, I said “cherished” disappointments – had to be forgotten? Men and women of- ten treasure their failures out of some misguided sense of safety and security.

Forgetting what is behind means unshackling oneself from the com- forts of past victories and the comfortable excuses of past defeats.

We are called to press forward toward a goal we have not yet achieved. The press involves some stress – the right kind of stress that is the tension between where we are and where we ought to be. The press involves energy and intensity. It calls for commitment and consecration.

More than anything else, pressing on demands a clear fix on the prize. Without knowing all the details, we can know that there is a clear mark. It is the calling of God in Christ Jesus, but not just any calling; it is the high calling.

It doesn’t matter where you’ve been, who you’ve been, or what you’ve done – great or small. The high calling is higher, loftier, and more wonderful than anything. This calling deserves to be the ONE thing in your life to which anything else of value is attached. If these things cannot be attached, then they must be left behind because they are not worthy of the one great thing in your life: the prize.

PRESS:

Purposefully (Nothing is by chance. I trust His purposes in all things)

Reaching (It is a stretch for me. It is not my comfort zone. Yet. I go forward.)

Every (I will not disqualify any compartment of my life from His high calling.)

Step (I will remember that this process is gradual and I will gradually graduate.)

Steadfast (I will not falter. I will not quit. I will remain steadfast toward the prize.)

he Confidence Factor,  © 2016, Thomas B. Sims, All Rights Reserved ISBN: 1533326916 , ISBN 13: 9781533326911