2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
"Sanctifying work of the Spirit" is my phrase for today. Sanctification, to be made holy, is the work of the Holy Spirit. We are not actually in charge of that, although we often think we are. I find sanctification to be one of the hardest parts of my walk with God to explain to people, so I'll give an example from my journey. I'd once heard that accountability partners were a good thing for Christians to have. I had an action I was struggling with daily, so I though I would try this accountability idea. I had also learned it takes 21 days to break a habit and 28 days to create a habit. I thought I could use these new learnings in my walk with God to help Him sanctify me. I would write down on a piece of paper every evening "yes" or "no". "Yes" if I had managed to have self-control and not do the action and "no" if hadn't been able to control myself. After about two months, I realized I was falling short. I had "no"s on my paper and was having to restart my habit breaking day-count over and over. (I never even got to the habit making part.) I felt incredibly guilty for my lack of self-control each time I had to write "no" and was so disappointed in myself. It was at this moment that God reminded me of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and SELF-CONTROL. What?! Self-control was a fruit of the Spirit?! Changed my thought process completely. I realized it was not my job to control my action and obviously, accountability wasn't helping, it just made me feel guilty. The Spirit in me was going to produce self-control. My job was to surrender my own pride and stubbornness in wanting to conquer it myself. Once I surrendered to the Spirit's work, I was on my way. The guilt I had felt when I messed up was gone. And when I did stumble, instead of feeling guilty, I prayed that the Spirit would continue to work in me to change my actions. Slowly, but surely, He did so. The Spirit in me produced self-control until one day I realized it had been months since I had even thought of the action, much less done it. Oh, it took time, but the best part was that the guilt was gone and the Spirit was working. God does a beautiful job of loving, supporting, and changing us, even when we mess up. The Scriptures remind us of this; But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. -Romans 5:8 Why is it we want to hold on to and control the things in our lives that cause us so much pain and frustration? If we would only surrender those things, God will take care of them and change us in the process. Sanctification is the work of the Spirit, not us.
"Sanctifying work of the Spirit" is my phrase for today. Sanctification, to be made holy, is the work of the Holy Spirit. We are not actually in charge of that, although we often think we are. I find sanctification to be one of the hardest parts of my walk with God to explain to people, so I'll give an example from my journey. I'd once heard that accountability partners were a good thing for Christians to have. I had an action I was struggling with daily, so I though I would try this accountability idea. I had also learned it takes 21 days to break a habit and 28 days to create a habit. I thought I could use these new learnings in my walk with God to help Him sanctify me. I would write down on a piece of paper every evening "yes" or "no". "Yes" if I had managed to have self-control and not do the action and "no" if hadn't been able to control myself. After about two months, I realized I was falling short. I had "no"s on my paper and was having to restart my habit breaking day-count over and over. (I never even got to the habit making part.) I felt incredibly guilty for my lack of self-control each time I had to write "no" and was so disappointed in myself. It was at this moment that God reminded me of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and SELF-CONTROL. What?! Self-control was a fruit of the Spirit?! Changed my thought process completely. I realized it was not my job to control my action and obviously, accountability wasn't helping, it just made me feel guilty. The Spirit in me was going to produce self-control. My job was to surrender my own pride and stubbornness in wanting to conquer it myself. Once I surrendered to the Spirit's work, I was on my way. The guilt I had felt when I messed up was gone. And when I did stumble, instead of feeling guilty, I prayed that the Spirit would continue to work in me to change my actions. Slowly, but surely, He did so. The Spirit in me produced self-control until one day I realized it had been months since I had even thought of the action, much less done it. Oh, it took time, but the best part was that the guilt was gone and the Spirit was working. God does a beautiful job of loving, supporting, and changing us, even when we mess up. The Scriptures remind us of this; But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. -Romans 5:8 Why is it we want to hold on to and control the things in our lives that cause us so much pain and frustration? If we would only surrender those things, God will take care of them and change us in the process. Sanctification is the work of the Spirit, not us.
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