The Christian’s Desire

With a special bond, Paul was bound to the congregation at Philippi. It was to this congregation the Lord had directed him. We know that there his labors were blessed. Think only of Lydia and the jailor. Now, when he writes this letter, it is many years later; Paul is in Rome; he was taken there as a prisoner. His own people have cast him out, but in prison he writes a letter to his former congregation. In this letter Paul seeks to assure the people of the Lord in the congregation, those who were doubting, fearing, and struggling. In Philippians 1:6 Paul wants to encourage them. “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” What a wonderful encouragement for a struggling child of the Lord when he may hear that what the Lord has begun, He will never leave unfinished. There many of those struggling children of the Lord received a little hope in these words.

Then in Chapter 3 Paul begins to talk about himself. When we listen carefully, we hear how matters are pertaining to his soul and the great eternity which is before him. A minister may speak about what his hope and expectations are for the great hereafter, but, in general, we do not hear that so much anymore. Paul says, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” We hear how it is in his heart. There is not much anymore that binds him below to the world; he is now looking to the end of the journey, longing to be lifted and to be with Jesus.

Then in verse 12 Paul speaks about unfulfilled desires. We hear that Paul, the great apostle and missionary, must confess that he struggles with unfulfilled desires. One cannot speak of such unfulfilled desires when the Lord has not first awakened such desires. Paul says, “Not as though I had already attained”—he may confess there is so much more to behold in that precious Saviour, so much more then he has ever felt, tasted, or handled. There were heights in His glory which Paul had never seen. There were depths in His love which Paul had never experienced. There were depths in His suffering, in His bitter agonies upon the cross, at which Paul could only marvel. That is why this dear child of God must say, “I have not yet attained.” I am like a little child that I may continue to learn. I am child of God who struggles with unfulfilled desires; but I am blessed when I may make those unfulfilled desires known to my God.

Dear reader, are you also blessed with unfulfilled desires, and may you also lift them up to an ever-faithful God? Now there seems to arise in the heart of this child of the Lord a firm decision “but I follow after.” Paul forgets the things that are behind, and does not deny the things that the Lord has done, but he wants to reach forward to the things that are before him. He mentions that in verse 11, “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” Here Paul is saying that he is longing for the time when he may be there where body and soul may always be with the Lord.

Dear reader, may you also follow after? Has your heart ever been melted, softened, and warmed by the mercy and goodness of the Lord, by the love for and of Christ? Did you ever feel that there is a sweetness, blessedness, happiness in the things of God, to which nothing else can compare? Has your heart ever been opened and enlarged by the love of the Lord? How wonderful and sweet the times were when we needed nothing other than to follow after, and when more and more one may experience what that is to long for the blood and righteousness of a dear Saviour; also, when my heart evermore longs to find a place behind His blood and to experience in that blood His forgiveness for my sin. In that blood is a hiding place where one may find rest for his or her weary heart.

When I write this, my thoughts keep going back to a time when I made a visit to a child of the Lord. He was an old man sitting by his table visibly shaken. He said, “I am so assaulted by the enemy as never before. The enemy is saying that it could all yet be wrong in my life because I do not know the blood of Christ applied to my heart.” How one must experience that there is nothing that any man can say or do that takes such sorrow away. On the other hand, a good and faithful God can lift that sorrow. At two o’clock Sunday morning the Lord came over to him. The Lord said, “No, dear child, you have not yet received what your heart longs for, the blood of the Saviour applied unto the forgiveness of sin, but you may follow after.”

Reader, are you one of those blessed souls who say with Paul, “No, I have not yet obtained that which I long for, to be delivered of self, to rest in Christ, to be clothed in His righteousness before the throne of God”? Not yet obtained, “but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” No, then we are not yet there where all is perfection, where sin can never come, where we may sing, “Let Jesus wear the crown forever.” However, one day all those poor, needy strugglers may be there—because “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9).

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