UNPACK This...Super Bowl LIXSample

3-0 And Still Improving

After Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs to a 3-0 start to begin the 2024 campaign, he commented, "I feel like I haven't played very well, and that's not a stats thing. I just feel like I'm missing opportunities whenever they're out there and not throwing the ball in the exact spot I want it to be at."

Mahomes knows constant improvement and growth is necessary for his team to succeed.

Like players desire to improve throughout each football season, followers of Jesus should demonstrate the same attitude. Yes, we don't earn salvation or God's grace. Instead, we receive it as a gift based on Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

But because we are followers of Jesus, we desire to become more like Him. We want to become the person Jesus calls us to be, so we ask Him to transform our character continually.

Paul writes in Philippians 1:6, "And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

As God's Spirit works within us, we will experience some "wins." However, even when we're "3-0," we can't settle or get cocky.

Rather, we pursue constant growth all season long to become more like Jesus, humbly acknowledging that we have not yet grown as much as we can.

Paul explains in Philippians 3:12-14, "Not that I have already obtained it [this goal of being Christlike] or have already been made perfect, but I actively press on so that I may take hold of that [perfection] for which Christ Jesus took hold of me and made me His own.

"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [heavenly] prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Today, let's be encouraged to keep passionately pursuing Jesus.

As we do, we trust God to continue to change us on each step of the journey.

I'm Bryce Johnson, and you can UNPACK that!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for the ways You've changed me. I desire to become more like Jesus, so please give me the strength to continue maturing. In His name, I pray, Amen.