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Sanctification through Discipline
Confession time, I procrastinate😬. 😅I said it! Can you relate? Have you ever procrastinated so long that, once you started, the task was exponentially harder? 🙋♀️🤦♀️ The 🍂🍂 falling today reminded me of something God taught me about being disciplined.
Last year, a series of fall showers created a multi-layered blanket of soggy leaves in my yard, killing what was growing underneath. Procrastination allowed a few dry leaves to turn into a huge mess, and taught me the impact of personal discipline on sanctification (the process of making something holy). Christians ARE sanctified by Christ's death, yet we are also constantly BEING sanctified. As God removes sin from our hearts, He makes us more like Christ.
My first lesson from the leaves was that I didn’t have the right tools. Our yard was surrounded by a wooded area; a rake could work but it would have been a very long, painful process. So, I decided to use a leaf blower. However, my leaf blower simply wasn’t powerful enough to move the wet piles.
Sometimes we don’t have the right tools to make the changes God requires. Perhaps it is time to see a counselor, introduce a new spiritual discipline into our life, avoid or add certain behaviors?
Next, was learning to use the tools correctly! Standing still blowing leaves didn’t produce results. I learned walking forward with the leaf blower kept momentum going. When we see victory in one area of our lives, we must keep moving so the progress continues. By staying in one spot, things can blow right back and we just keep clearing that one spot over and over.
I also found you can uncover the unexpected, both good and bad. I celebrated finding lost 🪀🚂 and bemoaned stepping into piles left by our sweet 🐕. Through sanctification, we find there are gifts God has put inside us that He wants to use! And, we see hidden patterns of sin that He wants to clear out. Sound scary? Don't worry, relationship with Him is worth it!
Sanctification is necessary for our faith. Heaviness smothers life. The leaves will kill my lawn if I don’t clear them off, and sin will kill our relationship with our Heavenly Father if we don’t allow Him to work in our lives.