Philippians 3:7-9 – “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I
consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with Him. ”
Do you love Jesus so much that everything else in your life feels like trash compared to Him? Think about the trashcan in your kitchen, it always has the messiest, grossest, and most stinky trash (or at least ours does, haha). You come home and you’re hit with this stench from across the room and you hang your head as you realize you put last night’s spaghetti scraps and various refrigerator leftovers in the trash but you forgot to take it outside to the dumpster. It’s been rotting all day, and now you have this vile stink filling your house and making you a little dizzy, but you’ve got to take it outside because the smell just gets worse with time. As you move closer, the smell gains strength and your stomach starts churning. When you close up the trash bag, that little puff of air hits you in the face and you gag and almost hurl your lunch as you tie
it up and race outside bag-in-hand hoping it’s not dripping on the floor. That’s some nasty trash!
Is that how you view all your good deeds and material things when you compare them to Jesus and knowing that He died to offer you salvation from your sins? Are you seeking God’s wisdom and striving to grow closer to Him more each day, or are you wasting time building up riches, trying to impress people with what you wear, what you own, or what you’ve accomplished?
Paul was saying that all the stuff in his life that he thought made him a good person (all of his rule-following and “righteous” deeds and all of the high-ranking positions and accomplishments that he achieved) was worthless compared to knowing Jesus. THAT is love and devotion to God.
My prayer is to be so in love with God and so devoted to Him that everything in my life stinks like the kitchen trashcan when compared to Jesus. Will you join me in that prayer? Compared to knowing Jesus, everything else just fades away.
Related Text:
John 17:3
“And this is the real and eternal life: that they know you, the one and only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.”
