String Too Short to Use!

Thursday, November 17, 2022

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13,14 KJV).

If we are to move forward in the Christian life, we must not look backward to the old life….

Once, a man needed to sort through his deceased family member’s possessions. The lady was a hoarder, saving and categorizing everything. As he handled the items, he was dumbfounded to sight a container labeled, “Dress snaps that do not match.” Just when he thought it was worst kind of penny-pinching he had ever seen, he noticed an even weirder spectacle. There was a box with the following words: “String too short to use!”

Although the above true story is humorous, it is also tragic. The overaccumulation of material items can cause great stress, poor health, and even injury or death. People trapped under collapsed objects in their home is just one of the risks that hoarding poses. Hanging on to useless stuff in the spiritual realm can inflict even more damage. In today’s Scripture, Paul is providing his testimony (read verses 1-12), how he came by faith to Jesus Christ and left behind his old life as a lost man in works-religion Judaism. His focus was not on who he used to be in Adam (self-righteous sinner), but on who he now was in Christ (truly-righteous saint).

What the Holy Spirit is impressing on us in today’s Scripture is to “get rid of that string too short to use.” There is no benefit in retaining it. It will only weigh us down, distract us, and even destroy us. Dear Christian friend, by the power of God’s grace, let go of the old life—the darkness, confusion, sin, filth, disappointments, impotency, immaturity. “Reach forth unto those things which are before” and “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Let Christ Jesus live His life in and through you, as you walk by faith in an intelligent understanding of His words to you (Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon)!