Pressing On

Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.

To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh—even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard 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 one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this 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 heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained. Philippians 3:1-16

Pressing On - A Friday Song

I press on though age and pain
seem to be my constant friends
despite the hills and valleys
uncertain and cruel weather.

When the skies darken
When the winds blow harsh
when the light has fully faded
still I am pressing on.

Not and athlete nor a winner
not picture perfect or robust
we press on for we are loved
just the way we have been made.

When the skies darken

When the winds blow harsh

when the light has fully faded

still I am pressing on.

These feet are slow but moving

these arms are soft yet reaching

we might get weary on this road

yet we will never be left behind.

When the skies darken

When the winds blow harsh

when the light has fully faded

still I am pressing on.

The scars of the past come with me

but those never can define me

I press on beside thousands more 

don't look back, reach towards God.

When the skies darken

When the winds blow harsh

when the light has fully faded

still I am pressing on.