I love the process of sanctification. This word means to make holy, to purify, and to free us from the inclination to sin. God’s Spirit takes the weaknesses of our human nature and transforms them with the nature and character of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16; Titus 2:1-14; 1 Timothy 8:11). He removes the aspects which we dislike about our self, and He gives us His fruit instead.
I like myself so much more than I used to, because the struggles I had with my melancholy nature, and the residual issues caused by childhood trauma, slowly ebbed away. The shining virtues of the Spirit of God took their place. I started by writing on index card the verses pertaining to the fruit as God highlighted one at a time for me.
When I got to the fruit of kindness, the verse that really intrigued me was that we were to “gird our loins with kindness.” I decided to write the word “kindness” on the elastic waistband of all my white undies. This was a wondrous way to focus on this particular fruit.
One day, my husband asked me, “Did you gird your loins with kindness today? You are acting a bit irritated, grouchy, and testy for some reason. I looked down and realized that my choice of undies that day was a colored pair. Immediately, a smile swished across my face, and I retorted, “No! I am wearing colored ones, so I do not have to be kind today.”
We both got a good chuckle out of that statement, and the joy of the Lord immediately replaced my negative manner with a more compliant and brighter one. Later, I took a searching inventory of my soul – my thoughts, emotions, and choices - for a possible cause for my former negative attitude.
God showed me that my lack of sleep the night before triggered my natural defenses to protect myself from any more deprivation by the demands which life puts on us at times. Of course, a negative manner is not helpful at all, except to alert us to some insufficiency we are experiencing so we can care for that need.
Prayer:
Father God, thank You for giving us negative emotions as well as positive one, and for using them to alert us that our body, soul, or spirit is in jeopardy or stressed by some provocation. Teach us to take searching inventories of our soul throughout the day, and to resolve any issues that cause negative emotions to reign in our heart. This will prevent us from inflicting negative consequences on our self or other people.
Your sanctifying process is so rewarding, because the fruit of Your Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) takes precedence over our human thoughts and emotions, and it allows us to mirror Jesus’ character to the world around us. We end up liking our self more with each step of this process, and we are a better example of a Believer to our family, friends, co-workers, and community acquaintances. We desire to further Your Kingdom in the earth, which will not occur if we are no different than every other person in our sphere of influence.
Thoughts for the Day:
Until we learn to allow the power of God to transform our carnal nature with the nature of Jesus Christ, we still live in a negative downward spiral. Over time, God’s Spirit replaces our negative personality characteristics with love, joy, peace, humility, gentleness, patience, self-control, goodness, and faith in God’s faithfulness. This allows us to be helpful, a good example, and to deepen our relationships with the people in our sphere of influence.
-Ephesians 4:1-6; Galatians 5:22-23
