Sanctification

Sanctification is a word the Church throws around a lot, but not many of us truly grasp what it means to be sanctified. The word means: to purify or become freed from sin. This word brings to mind the picture of a silver or gold smith refining silver/gold. The process involves heating the metal to an extremely high heat, during this process, the imperfections rise to the surface, and the smith then scrapes them off of the surface. This process is repeated until the smith can see himself in the surface of the metal. This is not a simple process though. As you can see in the picture above, the gold has been heated until it is red hot. It takes a lot of heat to get to this point. Many times in our faith journeys, God puts us through this process in order that we may become more like Him.

What stands out to me today? Verse 13 of 2 Thessalonians 2 says, "God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit of faith in the truth."

Why did this stand out to me this morning? This past week, one of my staff members went through a really trying time. He was confronted with a sin in his life which greatly affected someone close to him. He was convicted to confess his action, which deeply hurt the person he cared about most in his life. He did confess, and he was forgiven, but he did go through a lot of pain, and there is still a lot of junk to work through before he gets to the other side of it. Since this happened this past week, I am more open to noticing the process of sanctification going on around me.

How will this apply in my life today? For much of my life, I have been under the impression that because I am a follower of Jesus, my life will be easy. This is not correct! I am an imperfect person and I know that God still needs to change things in my life in order to reflect Him more accurately. The events in my life I go through may be difficult, but I must remember that I will become more like Him on the other side of these difficult events in my life.

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow!

In His service, Crazy Pete