Day 20 Philippians 2:21...wanting nothing else!

"...everyone else is passionately driven and seriously strives for their own interests and advantage, not the desires of Jesus Christ in their lives or the lives of others!"

Paul uses very strong and concrete language throughout his letters. Very early on in my faith. I got the image of a little guy excitedly jumping up and down yelling "be like me, be like me!". Then someone would walk up to Paul, pat him on the shoulder and say, It's OK, calm down buddy! I've come to understand Paul's passion and zeal more and more....and this study has let me look at it afresh. Paul uniquely understands the Judgment and the Mercy. He was the pre-eminent Jew who encountered the resurrected Jesus. He met Mercy face to face and He told him to preach to the Gentiles.

"....everyone else is passionately driven and seriously strives"...here Paul is using concrete language like my two year old daughter does. Paul is speaking about all the teachers of the Law he had encountered. Remember he held a high position in the courts and had been given clearance to wipe out followers of The Way. He studied under the best of teachers, he knew the Meta-Narrative of God's people and he sat in the position of power. He was accusing himself and those who taught him. He's pointing the finger literally back at himself before his conversion.

"...passionately driven and seriously strives for..." the form of the Greek word used here is found in a number of places; Herod, after he heard that a King was born was filled with this level of self-interest. It led him to murder all male children born around the predicted time of his birth. Jesus tells His followers that they must seek after His kingdom and His righteous with this level of passion. They must forsake all other things, put down their lives and take up His cross. It is a call to a deep level of conviction, of pressing on and forsaking. How can this come about?

"...not those of Jesus Christ"... have you ever heard it said that God "cares more about our character than our comfort?" This is true in this world, but not in the next! God cares so much about our eternal comfort that He sent His only begotten Son to die in our stead! In this world there will be difficulties and trials and many of them will test our faith. Not test in the sense that God does nasty things to us to see if we hold on! That is the type of testing that Satan tried with Job. The testing of God strengthens our faith much like steel when it is heated. The interest of Jesus in our lives is that we should come to understand the faithful, loving mercy of the Father. As Jesus prayed in the garden "not my will, but yours" so we are to pray.

Do your prayers sound like that, or do your prayers sound like they are trying to manipulate the things that cause you grief in the outside world? Are you asking the Lord what it is you are to learn, for the patience to endure under the weight? Yes, the Father desires good things for Children, but are we the ones who determine what is good? Ask for the Lord to help and give the bread when you ask for it, not the stone!

How can we pray for the things we are ought to? By praying in the Spirit of God. Verse 2:20 uses one of the very first Greek words that ever captured my attention. The word is also used in 1 John 1:5. The word sounds like "ew-do-mia" and it means that there is not even the possibility of something to happen. It means there is absolutely no way, like light escaping a black hole. 1 John 1:5 reads then "In Jesus there is not even the possibility of Darkness to be"...this is the resurrected Jesus that has born and been purged of all sin. The resurrected mind that thinks only of the One sitting next to Him whom all the company of Heaven are worshiping. Now, we can't in this life obtain this level of single-mindedness but we are called to try. And when we blow it, the Loving God picks us up and fills our cup again because He is kind and merciful!

So...check your motivation...have you ever felt like a church hasn't been "feeding you?" ... are really saying "I want my God to fit my agenda" rather than "I want my God to assist me to fit His agenda?"