Press Toward the Goal: Why Only God Can Satisfy the Longing of the Soul

Philippians 3:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The interesting thing about our passage this week is that we all press on toward something. What we press toward becomes our idol if it is not the Lord. We were created by God for Him (Colossians 1:16). We are designed for communion with something higher than ourselves. The Apostle Paul taught our need to learn to be content in any and every situation (Philippians 4:12), but this is only possible if, in all things, we are pressing toward the Lord. As we press toward Him, He pursues us, and there is communion greater than any human circumstance. We are actually able to be content regardless of our circumstances and no matter what people do or don’t do. Pressing toward anything else or anyone else besides the Lord does not satisfy. Our soul will continue to thirst for something greater than ourselves. The problem is that there is nothing higher than mankind other than God Himself.

The Psalmist reminds us that our Creator has made us only a little lower than the angels, but then He crowned us with His glory and honor. In our form, we are lower, but as a reflection of Him, we have glory and honor that not even the angels have. They were not made in His image. Angels are ministering beings, but humans are image bearers of God. When we arrive in Heaven, our true nature will be seen in the fullness of this glory and honor, and nothing will be greater than us than God. But this is true now also. He has made mankind rulers over all He has created and all that can be created (Psalm 8:3-6). There is nothing in this world greater than ourselves. Only God in Christ will satisfy our souls. We were made for something greater than anything this world has to offer. 

The things of this world that we pursue only seem to be greater than ourselves. Yet, we forget that we have been made in the image of God. We cannot create anything from nothing as He has, but in our likeness to Him, we can produce something more out of what He has created. And anything we pursue is an attempt to make something out of what He has already given to us, whether it is cultivating love in a relationship, achieving fame through exposure, or earning money through a career. But no level of human love, fame, popularity, or success is greater in its nature than mankind. We are God’s greatest creation, and our only hope is to press toward the Lord. He alone is that thing greater than ourselves that we crave. 

Prayer: Lord, help me to remember that nothing in this world can satisfy my soul in perfect peace but You. Amen.