Brothers, I do not consider myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.     Philippians 3:13-14 LSB

Paul wrote this letter to the church at Philippi while in prison. He says he forgets what lies behind and reaches forward to what lies ahead. His goal is perfection in Christ. We can only attain this when we get to heaven. But we must strive for it while here on earth.

When God calls each believer to heaven and into His presence is when we receive the prize of perfection or righteousness which we cannot attain here on earth.

Paul speaks of forgetting what lies behind. We cannot rely on good deeds or achievements. We must not dwell on past sins or failures. We should be constantly serving and constantly growing in Christ. While on earth, we are a work in progress pursing the goal of perfection through Jesus Christ.

Just as a runner can’t run the race constantly looking back, we must not be distracted by the past. We are pursuing the goal of being like Christ. We are pursuing the prize of righteousness with God and spending eternity with Him in heaven.

If you read on in Philippians 3 to verses 20-21, Paul says, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by His working through which He is able to even subject all things to Himself.

We are just passing through here on planet earth. Heaven is our home. It’s where our inheritance is.

1 John 3:1-3 says, “See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and we are. For this reason, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not been manifested as yet what we will be. We know that when He is manifested, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”

God has such a great love for us that He allows us to be called His children. Romans 8:16-17 says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, also heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

The world does not know us because we are not of this world. When we accepted Christ as our Savior, we were made new. We are like foreigners in this world because we are not worldly. We have a new Christlike nature. We are described as strangers in 1 Peter 2:11.

As children of God, we should be like Him. When we press on toward Him, focus on Him and have our hope fixed on Him, we strive to be pure, just as He is pure. When we get to heaven, we will all be made pure.

The good works you have done won’t get you into heaven. They won’t help you win this race. Your academic and career achievements won’t do it. Keeping your thoughts on past sins or failure or sins committed against you by others will only slow you down and may cause you to stumble and fall.

Keep your eyes on the prize which is being made perfect through our reconciliation with God the Father. This will only happen when we get to our heavenly home. We will only get to our heavenly home through Jesus Christ. Stay focused on Him.

Have a great day!