Philippians 3:10-11; Dying to Self

“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”

“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”  You may remember that line from a David Crowder song a few years ago.  I believe it is a pretty accurate statement.  We want the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but we don’t necessarily want to chase the leprechaun to find it. 

This plays out in our lives in lots of different ways:

• I want to learn to play the piano…but I won’t commit to practice or pay for lessons. 
• I really need a new car…but I won’t cut back on my spending to save money. 
• I desperately want to get in shape…but I don’t want to change my eating habits or work out.

This plays out in our spiritual lives as well:

• My heart’s desire is to have an intimate relationship with Jesus…but I won’t discipline myself to spend quality time with Him.
• I want my friend to know Christ…but I don’t want to risk offending her to bring up spiritual things.
• I need to break a certain sin that has a hold on me…but I don’t want to share it so others can pray for me or sacrifice the time to pray and fast.

I believe it is human nature to want a shortcut, to get a result without going through the process.  The majority of us are lazy and undisciplined by nature.  Why is it so hard to wake up early to spend time with the Lord?  Because we would rather sleep.  Why is it next to impossible to eat a healthy diet?  Because we like to eat junk.  As I write this I am eating handfuls of Puppy Chow, aka, Muddy Buddies; Chex cereal dipped in peanut butter and dunked in powdered sugar.  It’s one of my favorites, but definitely not conducive to a healthy lifestyle.
We’ll continue with this next week, but until then, Paul was not afraid of the process to become like Christ.  His desire was to know Christ, to be acquainted with his suffering and death so that He might also experience the resurrection as well. 

Paul knew that to get the result you HAVE to go through the process.  You cannot have resurrection until death has occurred; both physically and spiritually.  Instead of dodging that truth, Paul embraced it.  Have you embraced it as well?

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” – John 12:24