I am a perfectionist, but I am learning that things don’t have to be perfect. I am an imperfect person, living in an imperfect world, full of imperfect people. Perfection is a character defect I need God to remove. But this isn’t the only defect I have. In fact I have many. Some defects God has removed, while others He is removing. The process of removing our defects of character takes time. It’s not like flipping a switch. God does this over time. I believe that it would overwhelm us if God removed all our defects at one time. So we commit to the process. We submit to God and His will. We stay on course and allow God to do His work for us. Our responsibility is to be entirely ready to have God remove all these character defects. It’s up to God to remove them according to His will.
The apostle Paul addresses this in his letter to the Philippians. Paul admits that he hasn’t obtained the goal, nor has he arrived at his goal (Philippians 3:12) Paul was well educated in religious matters and a member of the religious leaders. Then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and everything changed. He became a follower of Jesus (Acts 9:1-31). With all this Paul said, I’m not there yet. God still has work to do on me. We are no different. There is a lot of work God needs to do in our lives. Character defects we need Him to remove. The key is that we are entirely ready for God to remove them. “But I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12). We, like Paul, need to press on. We continue to seek God and His will. We continue to be entirely ready for Him to remove our character defects.
Paul goes on to say, “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead” (v. 13). Paul isn’t focused on the past. He still knows about it, but chooses to not live there. The character defects God removed from him isn’t the goal. The goal is the character defects that God is working on to remove. We need to not dwell on the character defects God has removed from us. There are plenty more to look forward to having God remove. That is our goal. So we never stop straining for the goal. Paul closes this by saying, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (v. 14). There is a prize at the end of the process that we press on toward. The prize is heaven and eternity in the presence of Jesus. So we too press on toward the prize that God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.
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