TODAY’S SCRIPTURE Philippians 3:8-11

When you were a child, did you ever have the experience of coming to a creek that looked a little wider than you thought you could get across by jumping? You stand on one side and wonder if you can make it across that creek. Then, one in your group tries it. He makes a run, jumps the creek, and lands on the other side. In landing on the other side, your friend has won a victory over the creek. It is that friend’s victory.

But it also becomes your victory. Maybe you were a little scared to try it, but now you decide, “If he can do it, I can too.” So you step back, make a big run and jump too––and you win the victory over the creek as well. That person’s victory is also your victory, with the first friend across leading as kind of a pioneer (Hebrews 2:10; 12:1-2).

You see that kind of victory in sports championships. The players are on the court, and their team wins — and throughout the game the camera pans on the parents, the coaches, the supporters from some little town in Tennessee who are there because they played a part in the life of that young man or young woman who made it to victory. What makes the victory great is that they won the trophy, not just for themselves, but for all of those who helped them get there.

In the resurrection of Jesus, two great affirmations are made. One affirmation is that Christ has won the victory. But the second theme, perhaps more important, is that we too win a victory through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul longed to follow in the victory of his Master, praying “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).

Today, I will…vow to follow closely in the footsteps of my Jesus. I will pray, “Father God, just for today, help me walk Your narrow way. May my step be worship, may my thoughts be praise, may my words, bring glory to Your name.”¹

_________________________________________
¹ These words are excerpts from the song “Father God” by Marc Schelske.