The Lord woke me up last night with 3 things rattling in my brain:

 1. “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul is pressing on, in a definite direction, striving and reaching and pressing on to get the prize of the upward call. What is this “prize of the upward call”? Whatever this prize is, it had Paul’s full and complete attention. See Phil.3:12-14.

2. “Was it merely for human reasons I fought wild beasts in Ephesus?” Paul wrote this, referring to his rock-solid commitment to press on with his life even when things were hard. Paul knew that one day he was going to have to stand before Christ and measure up to His standard. He wasn’t going 1 minute before he was ready if he had anything to say about it! Paul knew that he was going to have to give account for what he did and he knew he wasn’t ready yet. See 1 Cor.15:32 ff.

3. And then, a popular song:

 The Motions by Matthew West 

Click here to hear the whole song and see the lyrics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHhWGtR9E3c

To me these Scriptures and this contemporary song take us all in the same direction. Jesus is calling each of us to win the prize - the prize of an upward-looking call in Him. We can’t let anything short-circuit this passionate pursuit – not even wild beasts! Let’s join the chorus of the song, declaring that we don’t want to go even one more day without Jesus’ all-consuming passion inside of us, so that we can fulfill the work that God has called us to do!