Definition of Sanctification: "The act of sanctifying or making holy; the state of being sanctified or made holy; esp. (Theol.), the act of God's grace by which the affections of men are purified, or alienated from sin and the world, and exalted to a supreme love to God; also, the state of being thus purified or sanctified. [1913 Webster]"
To paraphrase - working on yourself to become holy, to become Christlike.
One would assume that if you are a christian, then your main goal, apart from winning souls to the Lord, would be to Sanctify yourself. To set yourself apart (become holy) and become more like Christ daily. As silly as this sounds, this is not always easy to do. We often get caught up in our own agenda and time line - we need to step back, look at the BIG picture and gain some perspective.
The book we are reading in Wednesday night class is called Sacred Marriage, and is pretty good. A book like this is really only as good as you make it though right? Tonight we reviewed chapter 8, Sacred Struggle. For some reason THIS week is where it started to really click for me. The last several chapters have been good and have had some good areas for life application, but this week was different for me. It was less direct than the last few chapters and talked about how good can come from bad. Yes, I did already know that! But for some reason I had the moment/revelation. Mom and I call it the "Ah ha" moment. Thought I already knew it - in bits and pieces, I hadn't connected the dots to form this much needed revelation. Here goes...
YOU MEAN ALL OF THIS IS TO REFINE ME????? WHAT THE HECK?!!?!?!? Yes, this is what I have been asking for, for so long. Refine me through this fire, return to me the joy of my salvation, make me who you had me to be, renew my faith and make me wise once more. Those are the Goal. To put it as Beth Moore would, I have been wholering (spell check doesn't have a "hick" version so I've no idea if that's spelled right) flat on my back at the bottom of this Pit and finally stood up to see what was going on around me!! I now have a vision of what all is going on - I realize I am getting answers to my prayers AND it sucks! Yes, you read right. It sucks! (the struggle in the answered prayer is NOT fun - throwing back to my chapter title this week "Sacred Struggle")
I am SO proud and happy to see the progress thus far, but MAN I wish it wasn't so hard! I wish I had more confidence that it will all be ok. And God said, It will and I do my best to receive that. I am being refined. SLOW PROCESS! My Faith is growing, who knows about wisdom (I won't notice until I've had a good dose of it) and the joy of my salvation is creeping in giving me wonderful sperts of joy. All happening so slowly. I want the end result. I want to get to the end and know it will all be ok. BUT I rejoice in the progress still!
Wow, I'm just realizing that I don't think I have laid it all out there for you since I started the blog. I have been keeping this so tight inside me. Worried what might happen if I let it go. The reality sets in once it's out there... My husband and I were seperated for 9 months, you should already know that much. I really didn't think we would get back together. We did. Right at the same time, he learns a pregnancy had come about with another woman. The baby just turned 2 a couple of weeks ago. We hadn't heard from the married woman until this last June. Joseph has seen the baby and is seeking a relationship with his daughter though a paternity test is still pending but will happen in the very near future. All visual signs point to her being Joseph's. So here I am. Doing what I believe is RIGHT. The RIGHT thing. And not handling it too gracefully I might add- or not as gracefully as I'd like to. But I truly believe at Judgment I could not hold my head up and admit I turned my back on my commitment, that I had given up. If you aren't a christian, you are thinking, "girl, you are crazy. I'd kick him to the curb". But I have a promise for eternity. I make mistakes REGULARLY, but this one is BIG. It effects more than just me and I can't accept anything less from myself than what I believe is right.
So what do you believe? Do you believe the person you married is truly who you are suppose to be with and DID you really mean what you said when you MADE your wedding vows? Do you believe that God won't give you more than you can handle? What is your purpose? What did God put you here for, or maybe the question is WHO did He put you here for? Is there a better example than marriage, for laying down your own desires and becoming like Christ?
I have not been perfect, but I have done the best I could with what I had, what I knew, and what I could handle. I always want to do better. I ALWAYS really do want to do the right thing, that doesn't mean I will. Even when I get derailed, I still WANT to be doing the right thing.
OK long story to say that I see things are moving. Moving me closer to being like Christ. I just need to encourage myself that it will be OK and that when things get tough I AM still making the Right choice - no matter what. Even if I mess up. My goal is my goal, whether I like it all the time or not, it will remain my goal.
can you say... "now go apply that mentality to losing weight and getting healthy!" ?... yes, this is how my mind works :)
