Tag Archives: Sanctification
Willing to Will as God Wills
Practical conformity to God’s will cannot be attained by our own efforts. We cannot will to will as God wills, but we can turn ourselves to Him and ask Him to put the power within us to subdue the evil conqueror, the rebels, and make us masters of our own troubled spirits. There is only one power that can draw us out of the land of rebellious disobedience where the famine and the rags are, and that is the convicting Spirit of God which is given to all them that desire Him and will lead them in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. If He be my God… and therefore longing to have me obedient, He will not withhold what is needed to make me so.
Alexander Maclaren in Wilbur M. Smith, Peloubet’s Select Notes on the International Bible Lessons for Christian Teaching (Boston: W. A. Wilde Co., 1948), 287.
We Don’t Realize How Desperately We Need Christ
We are not just dependent on Him [Christ]; we are desperately dependent on him. Because we so often equate Christlike character with ordinary morality, we fail to realize how impossible it is for us to attain any degree of conformity to Christ by ourselves. But if we take seriously the long list of Christlike character traits we are to put on, we see how impossible it is to grow in Christlikeness apart from the sanctifying influence and power of the Spirit in our lives.
Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1991), 115.
Going Backward in Order to Go Forward Better
Christ’s work, both in the Church and in the hearts of Christians, often goes backward so that it may go forward better. As seed rots in the ground in the winter time, but after comes up better, and the harder the winter the more flourishing the spring, so we learn to stand by falls, and get strength by weakness discovered…. We take deeper root by shaking. And, as torches flame brighter by moving, thus it pleases Christ, out of His freedom, in this manner to maintain His government in us. Let us herein labour to exercise our faith, so that it may answer Christ’s way of dealing with us. When we are foiled, let us believe we shall overcome when we have fallen, let us believe we shall rise again.
Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2011), 95.
Behavior Reflects Belief
Our behavior is often a reflection of our beliefs about who we are. It is usually consistent with what we think to be true about ourselves (Prov. 23.7). If we base our worth solidly on the truths of God’s Word, then our behavior will often reflect His love, grace, and power. But if we base our worth on our abilities or the fickle approval of others, then our behavior will reflect the insecurity, fear, and anger that comes from such instability.
Robert S. McGee, The Search for Significance (Houston: Rapha Publishing, 1990), 25.
Striving against Heaven
Ah, it is a vain thing for the broken pottery of the earth to strive with the glorious majesty of Heaven.
HT: @mmattinglyjr
What Discipleship Does and Doesn’t Do
Discipleship does not consist in what disciples can do for Christ, but in what Christ can make of disciples.
James M. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2002), 112.
The Scriptures Were Given for Transformation
The Sculpture Which Is Your Life
God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives.
HT: Challies.com
Suffering Is Part of God’s Will
Suffering is the will of God. It is his chief instrument for fashioning His creatures according to His own plan. While by our work we ought to be seeking to make a bit of the world such as He would have it to be, by our suffering He is seeking to make such as He would have us to be. He blocks up our pathway by it on this side and on that, in order that we may be kept in the path which He has appointed. He prunes our desires and ambitions; He humbles and makes us meek and acquiescent. By our work we help to make a well-ordered world, but by our suffering He makes a sanctified man; and in His eyes this is by far the greater triumph.
James Stalker, The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1966), 153.
Life Is Worship 