Philippians 3:14 (ESV) I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Here is a thought that might have escaped many of us. Paul is pressing on towards a goal.

My parents never instilled in me goal setting, at least not directly. Instruction was more about performance, technique, and repetition. Goal setting is different. With goals you have the opportunity to measure performance. Goals need to be set with two things in mind, achievable and stretching. If you set a goal to low, you will not stretch yourself, effort needs to lead to improvement. They need to be achievable to keep from being frustrated.

I never learned that until I was well into my growth in Christ. Things were way too easy for me and I had no measure of growth in Christ. Others could see it, but I did not. I found myself wanting promotions which never came because I did not set nor achieve the goals required for those promotions.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

I did not receive the proper training, in life or in the church. My parents were responsible for life training, but who was responsible for church training?

Galatians 6:2-6 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.

Psalm 118:22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.

I never really gave it a second thought until just now but the reason He is the head stone of the corner is because the corner is a place of turning.

If you do not turn, you are walking away from the temple. That seems simplistic and pointless but the issue is ongoing if you stop and think about it. The original choice to follow Christ, to be in Christ, is that temple dwelling. If we do not turn, there is no following Christ, no dwelling in Christ, we have gone our own way.

Isaiah 53:6a All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;

Proverbs 14:12, 16:25 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

The further you stray from the temple, the closer we come to spiritual death. It is easier to hear the voice within the temple if you abide therein. This is an ongoing process because as we walk we shall come to another corner, another turning point, and a chance to mistakenly not turn and walk our own way.

Choices, it is always about choices. I firmly believe the Lord wants to help us with every choice but do we seek His counsel in every matter? Sadly no. He has given us freedom and in that sense of freedom we trust more in the freedom than we do in the One who won it for us.

2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Galatians 5:1, 13 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.