EYE ON THE PRIZE - MICAH HULCE
Philippians 3:14
"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Here in Utah, we're coming down off of the highs of turkey season. The weather is getting hotter, and my mind is beginning to shift from longbeards to whitetails. Season has only been over for a few days, but I've had some time to reflect on my hours in the field.
I was fortunate enough to hunt in three states this spring. I kicked it off in Wisconsin, where the good Lord blessed me with a nice gobbler right off the bat. From that point on, my luck quickly began to run out. It felt like the turkeys started getting smarter, and I was getting dumber.
I only had a few days to hunt in Michigan, and despite having some close calls, I ended up eating my tag. Utah was my final hunt of the year, where I ended up spending about 30 hours in the woods. I'll save you the suspense and just tell you that I didn't put any meat in the freezer, unless you count the ground turkey from Costco.
On the last day of my hunt, I finally stopped and asked myself, "Why am I still doing this?" Every time I walked onto that public land, I knew what would happen ahead of time. I would call, the turkeys would gobble their way to about 50 yards, but never would come quite into sight. They followed this pattern religiously, and never seemed to slip up. It happened every single day. Despite all of that, there was something that kept driving me to wake up well before daylight, drive an hour to my hunting spot, and sit in the woods for hours on end. I had a goal. That goal was to walk out of the woods with a dead turkey in my hands. So no matter how tired I was, or how foolish those birds made me look, I knew I had to keep trying until I either accomplished my mission, or the season came to an end.
In the verse above, we see that Paul had a very similar mindset, but for a much better purpose. If you ever want to feel better about your life, read through Paul's life in the New Testament. This man was beaten, shipwrecked, put in prison, and more. Yet even after all of that, he kept chasing after his goal, which was to lead souls to Jesus Christ. His mind was so focused on serving Christ, that none of the obstacles in his path seemed to bother him. You could say that he had his eyes on the prize.
As Christians, the Bible doesn't say that we might go through hard times. It promises us that we will. We have two options when trials arise. We can either give up and walk away, or we can face them head on. The good news with the latter option is that we don't have to face it alone. If you are a born again Christian, then you have God Himself right by your side to help you get through the storm. If we want to make it through those trials, then we NEED to practice having Paul's mindset, and press on toward the goal. Trials won't last forever, but eternity will.
Romans 8:18 says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us."
We need to remember that the place that God is preparing for us right now is far greater than we can even comprehend. Someday we will be standing in heaven, praising Jesus, and we won't even be thinking about the suffering we went through on this earth. When you live with that mindset, it becomes a lot easier to walk through the storms of life.
So my encouragement to you would be to remember why it is that we are doing all of this. What is the end goal? For me, it's to get to heaven and bring as many people with me as possible. Keep that goal locked at the front of your brain, and press on.
Even though my efforts to kill a turkey in Utah did not succeed, we have a much greater goal to work towards. And if we press on, we will reach this goal. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Help achieve the mission - GIVE today
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