The Good Fight

The last few weeks the Vineyard has been doing a series called, "The Good Fight." This series dives into the person of Paul and takes us through his story of redemption through who he was a man of the Lord. I always ask myself the question, "What does it mean to be a man of the Lord?" I don't want to settle and give some cliche answer. Whenever I think about this, I always get frustrated where I am at now. I begin wondering, "God, why don't I get it? I'm selfish, hardened and frustrated." For those that know me they know that I am extremely competitive. This is for every aspect of my life, I love winning. That's how I am I give 100% all of the time, because I want to win all of the time. So when I look at my walk with the Lord and it's not where I think it should be I don't like it because in my eyes I'm not winning.

Here's my thought to that:
Do I believe God loves me? Do I believe he sought after me, died for me, cares about me more than I could ever realize? Do I believe God loves me right where I am? A sort of "come as you are" idea. I'm not ever going to be where I think I should be, that's not how this works, and honestly if I ever say in this life, "I'm where I should be", then I am worse off than ever before because I have forgotten how to experience grace.

So what does it mean to be a man of the Lord? I don't know exactly, but I do know if I am ever going to start in that direction I need to quit having such confidence in myself, and being frustrated where I am because there should be only one thing I am after...

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
(Php 3:7-15)"

Paul was about as close to being a man of God as there could be and he did it by forgetting everything he ever thought was righteous and having only dependence upon Christ.

Wish me luck.