Profit - loss - profit

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.          Phil. 3.7

Paul has outlined his credentials as a Jew. They are impressive. But, after meeting Jesus and receiving Him, he realises how his profit in the former things he now considers to be loss. Jesus is what matters to Paul. The trappings of religious practice are nothing when the reality of relationship is offered to us.

Paul sees the folly of following the practices and rituals of religion at the cost of missing out on the journey with a real God, Saviour and companion.

Paul was a Jew and his life prior to Jesus was totally wrapped up in the ways of the Jewish religious establishment. When he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he moved out of rites and rituals and into relationship. He was introduced, albeit in a somewhat unusual and even fierce way. He then gave himself to building relationship and living in that relationship with Christ.

Sadly, I sense there are those in the Christian church today who are bound up in rites and rituals and don’t truly know the reality of living in relationship with a real God. I thank my God that He has drawn me to Him. I know Him in relationship. My desire is to know Him more, to enter into deeper intimacy with Him. I pursue Him in this.

My Precious Father,

I thank You again for drawing me to You. I thank You for the relationship I have in You. I seek to deepen this relationship and I give myself to this end. Draw me on, lead me further and deeper into You. I yearn to be party to some of Your secrets, to see something of the mysteries of heaven. I give myself to You.                 Amen.