Of Wills and Ways, Part 5 Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Of Wills and Ways, Part 5 -------------------------- Date: 8/12/2002 Keywords: "attitude" "forget" "press" "win" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation.   Passage: Philippians 3:4-16* 4. although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5. circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6. as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. 7. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, 9. and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10. that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11. in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16. however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. Questions 1. What does Paul mean to "press on toward the goal ..." (verse 14)?   2. How would you define a winning attitude?   Practical help If you happen to be a basketball fan, then you'll easily identify with the thrust of Paul's words in today's focus verses (12 - 16). The power of the "press." And we're not talking about the news media. We're talking about turning up the defensive heat so completely that the advancing offense does a meltdown. In yesterday's study we saw that to gain Christ is to gain unfailing power. But, gaining power and using power are two different things. If you'll humor my basketball analogy a little further, it's like being on defense with a one-point lead and ten seconds on the clock with the opposing team inbounding at half court and you've got your top defender on the bench. You've got the stopper, but that player's not in the game. Not too wise. Just like this basketball game, in our porn struggles the last thing we want to do is focus on the mistakes we made leading up to this current battle with temptation — that just leads to another mistake. The thing to do is focus on the press (verses 13-14). And that means having a different attitude about how you'll win this "porn struggle" game. You see, when Christ's on your team it's a winning team. On that you can be confident. But you can bet you won't win if He's not in the game. If you're going to press; press with the best! Press with Jesus. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2002 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."   ---