A Weekly Word from your Pastor
Sanctify
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23
Last week we looked at the word Justification. This week let’s follow that word with a progression. The word for this week is Sanctify. To become sanctified one must seek to become set apart. Jesus calls us to be separate from the world. He calls us to “Be holy as your heavenly Father is holy.” To be sanctified is to become more like Jesus. It is to take on the attitude, actions and mindset of Christ.
One of our greatest downfalls as Christians as I see it is that we get saved and then we rely on heaven to be the final reward. Yet we miss the striving to become more like Jesus. We decide that once we are saved that we are free to act and think what we want because we are secure in our salvation. Jesus did not call us to go of on our own with our salvation. He called us to grow and mature. We call this maturation sanctification.
I found several definitions for sanctify. The one I like most says, “…make legitimate or binding by religions sanction.” In other words the act of my being saved is now become a part of my every day attitude, actions and mindset. I now no longer think for myself. I rework my thinking to align with the thoughts of Jesus. I don’t just talk the talk I now walk the walk. I am making my claim of Christianity legitimate.
In our world we have so many people making the claim of Christianity, but not living like Jesus. Now before you think I judging read 1 Corinthians about what Paul says about judging a fellow Christian brother. I am just saying that if we are truly saved by an experience with Jesus then we should want to align our lives with His. That is the process of sanctification. We begin to learn and live the life Jesus lived. We learn better how to love our neighbor as ourselves. And that is all of our neighbors. We do not have the choice to pick and choose who our neighbor is. We must learn to love them all. We do not have to agree with sin and condone it, but we do have to love the person and show them Jesus by our actions.
My hope and prayer for all of us is that we are being sanctified every day. That we are seeing to become more like Jesus in our lives. We are reading His word to be challenged to live like Him. We are staying connected through prayer and meditation so that we might hear His voice and follow His direction. We are seeking legitimacy in being a Christian. In Acts 11 they were called Christians because of their actions not because they belonged to a church or made a profession of faith. I want others to see I am a Christian because of my actions. I want to work on sanctification.
Dear Jesus, help us each and every day to become more like you. Help us to follow you and treat others as you would have us to treat them. May our actions show whose we are and what we aspire to become. We love you. In your holy name we pray, Amen.
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