welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread our reading was written by Adam our hold and he titled it make it your own dog
 on June 11th 2002 the singing competition American Idol debuted each week hopefuls performed their own versions of popular songs and the viewing audience voted on who advanced to the next round of the competition as one of the panel judges on the show Randy Jackson signature feedback was visiting her you made that song your own dog he lavished praise when a singer took a familiar tune learned it inside out and then performed it in a new way that gave it a unique personal spin to make it their own was to own it completely and creatively and then offer it to the World on stage Paul invites us to do something similar to our own faith and our expression of it to in Philippians 3 be rejected times to earn right standing before God instead he teaches us to embrace the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith
 the gift of forgiveness and Redemption transforms our motivation and gold I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus Took hold of me Jesus has secured our Victory our job to take hold of that truth internalizing God the gospel gift and living it out amid our broken World in other words we are to make our faith our own and in so doing live up to what we have already attained
 today's our daily bread devotional scripture reading his from Philippians chapter 3 verses 7 through 16
 but whatever we're gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ what is more I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith I want to know Christ yes to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings becoming like him in his death and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus Took hold of me
 brothers and sisters I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it but one thing I do forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me having word in Christ Jesus all of us then who are mature should take such a view of things and if on some point you think differently that to God will make clear to you only let us live up to what we have already attained
let's pray Jesus thank you for your saving gift of redemption and love on the cross help us to respond and gratitude each and every day and to press on and are faced with thankfulness it's in your name we pray amen
 thanks for listening today I'm Steven and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries