It's God's Will that YOU be Sanctified

Sanctification...a word that we Christians are oh so familiar with, yet whom very few really understand or pursue. Sanctification is the natural process of one who is genuinely found in Christ. At the moment of salvation we are justified before God through the blood of Christ and then we are sanctified throughout our life until we meet our Maker at which point we are then glorified. But what does it even mean to be sanctified? In 1 Thessalonians 4:3 we read, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified." So if we know it is something that God "wills" for our life then we better make sure that we are desiring and not only that but pursuing it with our lives!

Sanctification is becoming more like Jesus. Isn't that our goal as Christians? To be like the one who saved us?? As we grow in our knowledge of who God is (through the Word and the enabling of the Spirit to understand that Word) we are going to grow in our Sanctification because it is going to motivate us to sin less and to glorify God more. When we pray we are being sanctified. When we fight temptation and have victory over that temptation through the Spirit we are being sanctified. When we go through trial we are being sanctified. When we are persecuted for our faith we are being sanctified. ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING That makes us more like Christ is part of our sanctification. Therefore our entire life from the moment of salvation until the day we die is all part of our sanctification process because we are being refashioned and reformed continually.

Sanctifcation is a process but it isn't something that just happens magically. It is something that happens ONLY by the Spirit but that we are responsible for as well...it takes HARD WORK. Anytime we hear the word "work" we shy away from whatever it is. We don't like working because as human beings and especially as American's we are lazy. We live in a society where everything comes easy to us and have had to work for very little for the most part in our lives. But becoming more like Jesus doesn't come easy. If we are going to grow we are going to have to be pruned. If the potter is going to mold His clay into a beautiful vessel for honor He is going to have to refashion it and form it...sanctification is painful at times...it is going to take hard work, perseverance, endurance, and effort increasing daily on our part for the rest of our entire lives. But oh the reward and benefits we will reap from that work...we will be more like Jesus and get to hear the words well-done in the Kingdom of heaven.

C.J. Mahaney said it well, " Sanctification is a process – the process of becoming more like Christ, of growing in holiness. This process begins the instant you are converted and will not end until you meet Jesus face-to-face. Sanctification is about our own choices and behavior. It involves work. Empowered by God’s Spirit, we strive. We fight sin. We study Scripture and pray, even when we don’t feel like it. We flee temptation. We press on; we run hard in the pursuit of holiness. And as we become more and more sanctified, the power of the gospel conforms us more and more closely, with ever-increasing clarity, to the image of Jesus Christ."