The word for this week is "apprehend". This word is found in Philippians 3:12-13:
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:
This is the Greek word "katalambano". Thayer's Greek Lexicon says: to lay hold of so as to make one's own, to obtain, attain to, to seize upon, take possession of. Vine's Expository Dictionary adds: to appropriate. The Amplified Bible makes it clearer:
12 Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. 13 I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]... AMP
Paul is speaking here as an extension or further explanation of what he had stated as his purpose or goal in verses 10-11:
10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] 11 That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body]. AMP
Paul was explaining that even though this was his most important pursuit, he hadn't arrived there yet! The rest of verse 13-14 reveal what he was planning to do about it!
13 ... but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. AMP
We will never actually arrive there until we see Him (1 John 3:2)! What we CAN do is to continue to grow in the Word every day! Paul also adds this exhortation in verse 16:
16 Only let us hold true to what we have already attained and walk and order our lives by that. AMP
That's the only way to grow up in the Word of God; do what we know to do and study to learn more. Each layer of knowledge builds upon the previous layer to give us a strong understanding or "apprehension"! Your continued growth in the Word of God is evident by the way you and Kristine are raising your children and the way you run your household! This is very gratifying to a Godmother and "Godmother-in-law"! Here is Hillsong with an older song called "All Of My Days":
Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!
