THESE VERSES GO from climax to climax: “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). “The upward call of God in Christ Jesus”—was anything more beautiful ever written? It expresses the heart of the Christian faith—a heart that is under an upward call and pull of God in Christ Jesus.
This verse is the anecdote to the complacency that says, “I’m in Christ, therefore safe and secure. All I have to do is to stay here.” Being in Christ can be the refuge of static virtues, a fixed character, and an undeveloping personality—a mausoleum for a dead Christianity. An Indian Christian was asked to go to one of my meetings for non-Christians, and he replied: “No, I’m satisfied with my faith. The non-Christians might ask questions of Stanley Jones which might upset my faith.” His faith was a fear, and his fear froze him into a stale goodness.
We need to be upset on one level to be set up on a higher level. God breaks our outworn patterns to give us newer and better ones. The little daughter of a missionary in Africa asked her mother, “Mother, how old is Stanley Jones?” When her mother replied, “Seventy-six,” she thought a moment and said, “How can that be? He acts as though he were just getting started.” The Christian is always just getting started. In Jesus every ending is a fresh beginning. He satisfies you and unsatisfies you by that very satisfaction. You want more—and yet more—and the more you have the more you want. He appeases your appetite and then the appeasement becomes an appetite. You are not dissatisfied, but forever unsatisfied. “The upward call of God in Christ Jesus”—that is the divine dissatisfaction with things as they are in behalf of things as they ought to be. I have seen Him and shall never be satisfied until I shall wake in His likeness. He has set me afire to be like Him.
O God, I feel Thy upward call in Christ Jesus, and I’m on this restful road to more. I rest in Thee and feel the restful restlessness for more of Thee. I am full and pray for enlarged capacity. I shall want Thee forever. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Everything in Jesus is a beginning—there are no endings, for our endings are only beginnings.
