THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL
Php 3:13 & 14 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
An ideal is a mental conception of character after which we desire to shape our lives. It is the fresco which we paint on the walls of our soul, and perpetually look at in our lonely hours; and since the heart is educated through the eye, we become more and more assimilated to that which we admire.
Our ideal should be distinctly beyond us. We must be prepared to strain our muscles and summon our strength, attempting something which those who know us best never thought us capable of achieving. Like Paul, we must count the ordinary ambitions of men as dung, must forget the things which are behind and press forward to those before.
We should choose as an objective, some ideal which is, in our own judgment or that of others, within our scope. It is a mistake to set before our minds an ideal which is altogether out of harmony with the make-up of our nature. Therefore we should learn to say: “I follow the guidelines, laid down for my life, by Jesus Christ.” Be sure that God created and redeemed you for a definite purpose. Discover that purpose, and set yourself to achieve it.
Our ideal should give unity to life. Happy is the man who is able to prosecute his ideal through each hour of consciousness, and who can say: “This one thing I do!” Such people are the irresistible ones. Those who know one subject thoroughly, or who bend all their energies in the prosecution of one purpose, carry all before them. The quest for a holy character may be prosecuted always and everywhere. In every act and thought we may become more like Christ.
The Christ ideal is the highest ideal. “That I may gain Christ, and be found in Him.” But such an ideal will only be realised at the cost of self-denial. You must put aside your own righteousness to get His; you must be willing to count all things loss; you must ignore the imperious demands of passion. So shall you be prepared for the hour when even “the body of your humiliation” shall be transformed to the likeness of the glorious body of Christ. His working is on your side; in you and for you He will subdue all things to Himself.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, You are all I want. May Your grace be with me, so that while having sufficiently in all things, I may live and do every good work. AMEN.