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OUR DAILY BREAD                 Friday, Aug. 4, 1995 
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READ:  Philippians 3:7-16 
                 
                     'HURRY SICKNESS'  
 
          "Not that I have already attained, or am  
             already perfected; but I press on." 
 
                         - Philippians 3:12 
 
"Hurry Up!"  "You're too slow!"  "We're late!"  How 
often do impatient words like these crop up in our 
speech, revealing our fast pace of life?  If we're 
not careful, we become people living in the fast 
lane, demanding quick arrivals and instant results. 
Stress experts call this problem "hurry sickness." 
 
In Philippians 3, the apostle Paul's testimony of 
lifelong growth reminds us that Christian maturity 
can be encouraged but not hurried.  In his book 
"Overcomers Through The Cross," Paul Billheimer 
says that just as God takes time to make an oak 
tree, He takes time to make a saint.  Christian  
growth is a process. 
 
Billheimer writes, "An unripe apple is not fit  
to eat, but we should not therefore condemn it.   
It is not yet ready for eating because God is not 
done making it.  It is a phase of its career and  
good in its place."  
 
Are you feeling impatient over your spiritual 
growth?  Remember, God is not finished with you -- 
nor does He expect to be until He calls you home. 
Only make sure that your goal is to know Christ 
and to become more like Him.  Then slowly but 
surely, under blue skies and stormy, He will  
bring you to maturity.  It's His sure cure for 
"hurry sickness." 
 
                        -- Joanie E. Yoder 
 
        O God, make me one of those rarest souls 
             Who willingly wait for Thy time; 
        My impatient will must be lost in Thine own, 
             And Thy will forever be mine. 
 
                        -- Bowser 
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            THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 
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          There are no shortcuts  
          to spiritual maturity.  
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THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  Isaiah 25-27

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