Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/ece-devotions/20250407ECME.mp3

“Do it myself!” says the child struggling to put on the socks. Independence can run deep in a little body. Sometimes things turn out alright after the youngster gives it their best shot and sometimes an adult needs to step in to fix it. Perhaps an independent attitude does not disappear as one becomes an adult. Take a scroll through Pinterest or YouTube and you can certainly tell the DIY or “Do It Yourself” attitude abounds in our society. Worse than trying to straighten out crooked socks is trying to straighten out a project that went sideways. Results may not be as one expects and a professional might have to give their attention to the problem.

By nature, humans even apply the “do it yourself” attitude to earning heaven. We are very good at constructing our own stairway to heaven, unaware of how shoddy our efforts really are. “I stack my comparisons to other people here. I heap all of my good deeds here and here and here. I will pile the commandments I have kept on top of those!” In short order, I feel like I am controlling my own eternal future right up to heaven’s open gates. Really, I am quite independently laying the bricks for a permanent home in hell.

It is God in his Word that gives me a holy reality check. He calls me to attention. Worse than a child who cannot manage his own socks, I cannot earn heaven by myself. My efforts to “do it myself” are a heap of rubble. There is not one of my ideas to secure life after death that God can salvage. God has to start clean, start new. He starts with his Son, Jesus and sends him to me, for me! Jesus, his Son, then takes a hold of me. He builds in me a new person. This new person is definitely not a “do it yourself” type. This new person turns my eyes to Jesus for daily forgiveness from sin and daily instruction in his Word. Trusting in his Son, Jesus, I will enjoy the most beautiful project God has been working on since the Garden of Eden, my home in heaven! Every last detail of that heavenly home will be completed for me. In Jesus, there is a home in heaven prepared for me!

Prayer: