…though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. 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. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

Philippians 3:4-11

Dear God, knowing Christ and becoming one with him. That’s the goal.

It makes me think of the best people I’ve ever known. None of them had to tell me how great they were. None of them told me about other people’s weaknesses and put them down. At their funerals, they are the kind of people about whom others say, “I never heard them say a negative thing about anyone else.” Those are people who know what grace is and have become completely comfortable in renouncing their own self-righteousness and embracing knowing Jesus and becoming one with him.

Father, move me closer to that today. Move me closer to being a builder and not a destroyer. Help me to reject the lie of self-righteousness and embrace the idea that my hope is built on nothing more or less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

I pray all of this through the power of His name,

Amen