Philippians 3:8 "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them rubbish, that i may gain Christ."

'It is worth it.' Many times before I have longed for someone to tell me that this was true, to look me in the eyes and implore me with those four words to let go and push ahead. I wanted to know if it was worth it. Because I sat there in the miry clay clinging in frustrated desperation, thinking that somehow this miserable state was better then letting go and pursuing Christ.

Here Paul is, telling me that it is worth it. In fact he says that, compared to the value of knowing Christ, everything else that I must give up has the value of rubbish. Paul's words here are not empty or hypocritical because he lost everything to gain Christ. In 2 Corinthians 11 Paul describes the trials he has been through since following Christ. He went through hard work, imprisonment, flogging, severe beating, exposure to death many times. He had been stoned, shipwrecked, and spent a night on the open sea. He was all the time moving around. He faced danger nearly everywhere he went. He faced labor, toil, and lack of sleep. He knew hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness. And then in Philippians, Paul expresses,  it is worth it. It is worth taking on discomfort, pain, constant danger, no place to call home, and hunger--- to gain Christ.

Christ truly is enough. To gain Christ will be to loose everything else, but IT WILL BE WORTH IT. There is so much value in knowing Christ that i don't realize because I still see myself clinging to other things. Everything else is rubbish in comparison. And clinging to rubbish will make me feel like the rubbish itself. Is this desperate state of clinging where the freedom really is? How, as I miserably hold tightly to what I must loose, how can I think that to gain Christ instead will not be worth it. Yes it will be worth it. It is trading rubbish for the immeasurable gain of Christ.

This study has brought to mind something that I had outwardly given up to the Lord, but inwardly I stilled grasped it so in application, I want to bring that before the Lord in prayer. Also I want to make a list of things that I cling to and write next to each one, Christ is enough.