Wednesday, 13 September

Wednesday, 13 September – katalambano (2)

Philippians 3:12-14  Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I could not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing [I do], forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, 14 I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

If you missed the entry for yesterday, please time a moment and go back and read it.  We are talking about this powerful Greek word: katalambano. It means to run after and seize with excessive force.

There is a great difference between being the owner of something and just renting it.  In the early years of the US Virginia colony a law was passed that only property owners were eligible to vote.  This was to prevent the large masses arriving from England, and who had no vested interest in the future of the colony to determine her politics.  And there is certainly a spiritual application to this.

The Greek word katalambano suggests that once you seized the thing you were running after, you would literally take possession of it, and it of you.  Many of us have taken ownership of things that simply don’t belong to us: the worries and cares of this world, the offenses and failures of our brothers or sisters, the current economic and political situations, and the list continues.  At the same time we too often fail to take ownership of the things that truly matter: our adoption as sons and daughters and with it our identity in Christ, the love and forgiveness in God that is never-ending, the peace that passes all mental comprehension, the destiny that drives the kingdom of heaven, and the list continues.

There are, however, some very practical things that I exhort you today to take full ownership of:

1. First of all this Daniel Fast
2. Secondly, your marriage covenant.
3. Thirdly, the plan of God for your life (even if you aren’t perfectly clear as to what it is.
4. And finally, your local church (spiritual family).

Decide now that the days of being a renter are over.  You are going to become an owner of the things that God has given you.  And as well, decide that you are going to refuse ownership of the things that God has not specifically given you.