God truly desires us to strive toward perfection, even as we recognize imperfections within ourselves. The term "perfection," as used in Hebrews 6, means to complete, to be a completer or perfecter, particularly one who reaches the goal to win the prize. In the case of Jesus Christ, this perfection does not imply a deficiency in character or nature that needed moral improvement through suffering. Rather, it concerns His qualifications as Savior, proven fit through the path of testing, hardship, and suffering while remaining obedient to His Father. He was thus proven fit to be the Savior of mankind. As we strive to follow His example, overcoming the tests that confront us, we are being prepared for a role in God's Kingdom. God has called each of us according to our own ability, not asking more than we can accomplish. Each individual receives a reward based on the perfection achieved through what Christ knows we can do. We are asked to be perfected by the calling given to us, to strive toward maturity and growth as Christ Himself did. Though this task does not come easily in our society, God knows exactly what we need and what we can achieve, ensuring that we are not given more than we can handle. May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after we have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle us.

Richard Ritenbaugh, citing Mark Twain's aphorism, "The art of prophecy is difficult, especially with respect to the future," points out that there are too many variables for any human to predict accurately. We can be thankful that God's prognostications and prophecies are totally trustworthy, many of which have already come to pass. God is a forecaster extraordinaire. Prophecy is the ability to forecast an event in advance. Many predictions are quite probable with regard to general predictions, but the more qualifiers and variables we add, the less probability the prophecy will work out. Some futurists, like H. G. Wells, have been successful in their prognostications, although many turned out to be duds. We should gaze forward, anticipating what God will reveal to us, becoming "nostalgic about the future," and not wistfully looking back, lingering or dallying, as did Lot and his family. By looking back, Lot's wife was boldly repudiating the will of God. Once we have made the commitment to follow God, to recount the cost would be suicidal. God has to come first before anyone else from the time of commitment and beyond. Looking back leads to "plowing a crooked furrow." Paul assured us that pressing forward to knowing Christ makes every other goal rubbish. In putting all into the goal of following and knowing Christ, we are not alone; we have a big cloud of witnesses who have provided us an example to follow something we cannot immediately see, except through the lens of faith.