Photo Courtesy of Lori Kennedy |
Sanctify Me, Lord!
By
Lori Kennedy
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good,
pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2
(NIV)
By
Lori Kennedy
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good,
pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2
(NIV)
To sanctify means to be set apart. We are sanctified at the moment of
conversion. It has been done, but it
doesn’t end. Sanctification is the
process of being set apart; of transforming into the likeness of Jesus. Since it is indeed a process, it is ongoing and
doesn’t end until we reach heaven. The
goal would be to look a little more like Him and love a little more like Him
each day. God saves us in an instant and
we are His forevermore. He places His
Holy Spirit in our hearts and as this process of sanctification takes place, our
want to’s begin to change and become more like His want to’s for us.
As we begin our new lives in Christ and develop into a new creation
(see 2 Corinthians 5:17), we still bring in all our old learned junk and bad
habits into this relationship with us.
We bring in any lies we may believe about ourselves. We bring in any wounds that we have not dealt
with. All that is a part of us comes
along with us into this new relationship.
As God begins the process of sanctification, His desire is for us to be
whole and Holy. Again, we are whole and
Holy in the instant of conversion. But,
learning how to live in that truth must be learned.
All of our lives, we could have possibly been making
decisions through a broken filter of self-protection, doubt, fear, and shame. As we begin to become aware of this and begin
to recognize in what ways our filter might be broken, we must use the Word of
God to replace any lies we may possibly believe with the message of the truth
in scripture. Just like with any other
application in our lives, the more we practice, the better we develop
skill. After much practice, the truth
that we have replaced the lie with becomes new truth to us and we begin to
restore our filter into a filter of truth.
You see self-protection, doubt, fear, and shame are not from God.
2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given
us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (NKJ)
Psalm 34:5 says, “Those who look to him
are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” (NIV)
When I think of my life ten or five or even two years ago I
can see sanctification occurring in my life. I am different today that I used
to be and I love that God is continuing to show Himself to me on an ongoing
basis. My yucky stuff still comes up
from time to time and I still react out of a false belief or an old wound. But I find that it’s less often, and the pity
party I give myself afterwards occurs for a shorter period of time.
My friend Shelley Hendrix says, “You don't get to choose
what kind of opposition the enemy will send you, but you DO get to choose your
response to it.” As you continue upon
the journey of sanctification in Christ, you will get better and better at
recognizing the darts and filtering your responses through the loving Hand of
Christ. That is the hope of continued
sanctification.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hey!! We LOVE hearing from our readers and fellow Church Chicks! Please leave a comment to let us know you stopped by!