Philippians 3

So today we talked about purpose. I started off by asking everyone what they wanted to be. Most people answered with a career or just "I don't know". We then talked about what purpose is. Purpose is a direction that we want our life to go. It is not attainable; it is meant to give us something to strive for. We then looked into the bible, specifically Philippians 3, to see what it had to say. Paul talks about his previous life and how he put his confidence in the "flesh", his status and achievements. He gives his brief testimony to tell us what not to do. He then encourages us to place our value in knowing Christ and pursuing a relationship with Him. Knowing Christ is of so much value to Paul that everything else was worthless. His old life focused on himself; gaining God's favor by following the law. However, he realized that he has to get righteousness not in the law but through faith in God. Only then can we be right before God. His purpose changed from gaining God's favor in his own efforts to knowing Christ. Paul reminds us that he has not yet attained the prize of full knowledge of Christ but that he presses on to reach it. He further encourages us to not set our minds on earthly things but reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven. I hope that I was able to get you all thinking about what your purpose is and what you want to do with the rest of your life. Hopefully we all will realize that knowing God is the only purpose worth striving after, the only direction that can lead us to God, and the only thing that has value.