September 5, 2023 8:00 pm
In a poem that begins, “I’m nobody! Who are you?” Emily Dickinson playfully challenges all the effort people tend to put into being “somebody,” advocating instead for the joyful freedom of blissful anonymity. For “How dreary – to be – Somebody! How public – like a Frog – / To tell one’s name – the livelong June / To an admiring Bog!”
Finding freedom in letting go of the need to be “somebody” in some ways echoes the testimony of the apostle Paul. Before he met Christ, Paul had a long list of seemingly impressive religious credentials and achievements, apparent “reasons to put confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:4).
But encountering Jesus changed everything. When Paul saw how hollow his religious fervor and achievements were in light of Christ’s sacrificial love, he confessed, “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. . . I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (vv. 8–9). His only remaining ambition was “to know Christ . . . the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (v. 10).
It’s dreary, indeed, to attempt on our own to become “somebody.” But as Paul discovered, to know Jesus, to lose ourselves in His self-giving love and life, is to find ourselves again (v. 9), finally free and whole.
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Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.
Our reading was written by Monica Johnson. flesh. But encountering Jesus changed everything. When Paul saw how hollow his religious achievements were in light of Christ's sacrificial love, he confessed in Philippians 3.8, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ. His only remaining ambition was to know Christ, the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings becoming like him in his death. It's dreary indeed to attempt on our own to become somebody, but to know Jesus to lose ourselves in his self-giving love and life is to find ourselves again, finally free and whole. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Philippians chapter 3, verses 4 through 14.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law of Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever regains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.
I consider them garbage 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 is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Please pray with me. Loving God, thank you that we don't need to try to be somebody, to be loved and accepted by you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening today. My name is Brenna Holsclaw and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-09-05 21:03:07 / 2023-09-05 21:04:45 / 2
