I Have Discarded Everything

Meditations on the Book of Philippians

June 25, 2020

I Have Discarded Everything

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.

Philippians 3:8-9a

Read: Philippians 3: 7-11

              

Imagine you have a diamond and want to determine its value. You take your diamond to a jewelry store and the proprietor brings out an old fashioned scale, one with two trays, suspended from a balance rod. When there is equal weight on each tray the rod balances perfectly. He places the diamond on the left tray and then adds weight to the other side until the scale is in balance. I can think of your worth, or value, in a similar way.

Imagine the scale with two trays.  Now, please take a seat in the tray on your left and I will begin with a segment of This is Your Life. All of your family and friends from your past and present will come across the stage and share something about your life – only the good! All of their remembrances will be added to the tray on your right. Next, I’ll add all of your education and business success as well as your participation in the programs and ministries of your church. The tray on the right is overflowing with all that is good and decent about you, but we notice that the scale has not moved. The left tray where you are seated is still all the way down, and all of your fame and accomplishments has failed to move the right tray down so the trays will be in balance.

I’m stuck for an answer, so I ask God for a little help. After all, He knows everything. I ask God to help us find a way to balance the scale so we will know your worth.

God asks me to remove all the stuff I had placed in the right tray, and I do. Then God places Jesus in the right tray. Now the trays begin to move until they balance. Perfectly! You are worth Jesus. Your value, to God, is the same value that God places on Jesus. God loved you so much that he gave his one and only Son for you so that when you believe in him you will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

My Takeaway: Because of this Biblical truth Paul said, “I once thought these things (all the stuff in his right tray) were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:7-8. Parentheses mine).

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.