Day 28 - Pursuing Holiness - part 3

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Day 28 - Pursuing Holiness - part 3

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and 
let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, 
the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before 
Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down 
at the right hand of the throne of God."
Hebrews 12:1-2 

Sanctification is the process of growing in holiness that begins at the time of salvation and is not complete until the day we meet Jesus in heaven.   It takes time, it is not instantaneous.  It is a work of God's (vs 2 Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith), but we must cooperate ("....let us lay aside every weight, and the sin...let us run with endurance the race...looking unto Jesus...").  We won't ever be perfectly holy until we get to heaven.  On the otherhand Justification is your legal standing before God in Chirst at the time of your Salvation.  It is how God sees you in Christ now.   

 

One morning as I was praying and preparing for a Bible Study class I was teaching on sanctification the Lord (I believe) gave me a rhyme to help the ladies understand the process better.   This is how it went: 

"We all start from different places, we run different races, and progress at different paces."

 When we first believed in Christ...

We all start from different places...

Some of us had a better start at life then others.  Some of us had great upbringings and some of us had lowsy or abusive upbringings.  Some of us had excellent educations and others not so much.  Some of us were raised in middle class neighborhoods or better.  While others were raised in poverty or near poverty.  Some of us made good choices all along.  Others of us made one foolish choice after another.  Some of us have never uttered a swearword or atleast rarely.  While for others, every other word was a swearword.  Some of us looked atleast outwardly pretty good (looks can be decieveing) and others of us were very rough around the edges etc...   

Though we all start from different places we all begin the same way!  On our knees before a holy God feeling unworthy to even look up or ask for Jesus to have mercy on us!  Yet, we cried out Lord, have mercy on me a sinner!  We may have started from different places but we begin the same way...

We run different races...

 

Be assured if you are a child of His, He does have a plan and a purpose for your life!  But it does not look the same for everyone.  It's the race that is set before you, that you run (vs 1c"...and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us...").  I am to run the race that is set before me.  My race does not look like your race and your race does not look like mine.  God's purpose, will, and plan for me is not the same as it is for you (though we all are to fulfill the great commission Matthew 28:18-20).  

We progress at different paces...

As said above sanctification is a process and it takes time.  It's also important to know and understand that not everyone progresses at the same rate.    For example some people are compeletely delivered from alcoholism at the time of their salvation and they never take another drink.  Others will have an ongoing battle with drink.  

We progress at different paces, but we should be progressing!  We are all a work in progress!  We should all be saying: "I'm not where I was, but I'm not where I need to be."  We can know we are on the right track if we are beginning to see our sin as God does and hate it.  If we long to be free of it then I think we are progressing.  On the otherhand if it does not bother us we should be worried about why it does not bother us.

Ladies, we need to stop comparing our Christian walk with anothers. The only one we should be comparing our self with is Christ.  Instead we need to be patient with one another, we need to come along side one another, we need to bear with one another, cheer one another on, spur one another on, etc...Why?  Because...

It's a process and it takes time!  The time and process is different for each of us because we we each have different places that we came from.   It takes time because God doesn't just show us all our sin at once (atleast for most of us) or we'd be overwhelmed in grief and despair.  However He does not leave us where we are at either.  His Spirit will be working in our conscience to purify us.  If we tune Him out and we are a true child of His, He will discipline us as a loving Father would.  

A note of caution:  while we are to not tolerate sin we are also to be careful how we judge each other (Romans 2:1; Romans 14:10,13)! You don't know what they had to overcome, how far someone may have already grown, or where their heart is at. 

Praying dear ones, that we will keep our eyes fixed on the author and finisher of our faith, and that we will lay aside every sin and weight and run "our" race with endurance!  To God be the glory!