Paul had been beaten, ridiculed, and now imprisoned, but it was over this that he wept.

Paul, who had tasted the goodness of living for the cause of Christ, passionately pled for fellow believers to do the same. (Phil 3:15-17).

And then, others seem to come to his mind. You can almost feel the heartbreak in his words.

And I wonder if his tears wet the pages as the old man wrote “with weeping” (3:18) of those who were enemies of the cross, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is their shame (3:19).

And what do all these have in common?

They “set their minds on earthly things”(3:18)

Paul is weeping over those who have set their minds on earthly things, and he calls them “enemies of the Cross”. (Phil 3:18-19)

This should cause us all to take a sobering pause.

Where is our focus? No, really. What’s on your schedule for the day? How much of what you will do has a temporal focus, and how much will have eternal impact?

What consumes your thoughts? Is it earthly things? What does your budget reflect? How tied are your emotions to the here and now? What is the focus of your dreams and goals?

Will these things, you just listed, last into eternity?

Let’s ask the Lord to reveal our hearts to us.

Let’s be reminded, if we have been bought by the blood of the Lamb, that our citizenship is in Heaven (3:20) and that this is not our home!

Let’s resist the temptation to be consumed by things that simply will not matter in the light of eternity.

Lets ask the Lord to draw our hearts closer to Him. Let’s don’t forget He is our first love!

And let’s remember, His mercies are new every morning. (Lam 3:23)

Maybe we’ve gotten off track. Maybe we’ve been off track for years.

As long as we have breath in our lungs, it’s not too late to turn the sails! Let’s turn our eyes to Jesus, and away from earthly things, for that is where true life is found! (Psalm 119:37)

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