It's been fun to have animals bigger than dogs again; I've missed seeing animals in the pasture. Yesterday after they got here I sat leaned up against a tree in the pasture, watching them mow their way across our grass with three of my siblings in close attendance, while two of my other siblings clambered in the branches above me. Everything around me was turning green, the trees were budding and blooming, and it all smelled good. I had one of my many notebooks with me, jotting down thoughts, and thinking how this is life.
Lately, I've been pondering Sanctification. The process of becoming like, and growing in Christ that occurs after Salvation. Wayne Grudem defines it as "...a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives."
It's life long. A progress that continues in your Christian walk until you die, an upward walk on the mountain. Sometimes you reach little plateaus, and the progress is miniscule, but you're continuing to walk up.
I've been having mixed thoughts about it lately; I love how it's a life long process that can't be done on our strength alone. We need God. And that is such a relief; I can't do this by myself. I'm not supposed to. I'm not enough. And the fact that it can't be all done at once is comforting, being aware that the pressure to be perfect is off. The knowledge that My Creator knows I'm inperfect, and won't be until Heaven. That when I'm feeling imperfect, broken, unworthy, He knows. He understands. And there's a greater reason and lesson to learn behind the hard time, and it's helping me on this upward walk.
But the other side of me complains that it takes so long; it's not something that I can just wake up and check off the box: "Sanctification complete". I can't just be finished with it. I like checking off boxes, but you can't really do that with this box. Instead of fretting about that though, I'm learning to enjoy the journey. Perspective. Such a lovely thing.
{ I've been having a long and rather in depth talk about all of this with Mama, and we're still working on figuring it all out. I was going to write it all out here, but haven't quite figured it out enough to do so. Therefore, if you want to go more in depth on the topic, I highly recommend Wayne Grudem's chapter on the subject, which you can read here: Sanctification }
It's wonderful, this road, because the more we grow in Christ, the more we see of Him and can experience the joy and peace that are fruits of the Holy Spirit. (Gal. 5:22)
And as we become more and more obedient to God, Paul says "the return you get is sanctification, and it's end, eternal life."(Rom. 6:22) which is our source of real and true joy. "For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Rom. 14:17)
I love how God planned it all out; because I've seen that the more you see of Christ, the more you love and admire Him. And the more you love and admire Him, the more you want to be like Him and please Him. And as you grow to do so, you reap all of the blessings. It all ties together.
I love it when that happens.
It's amazing to think of how everything has a purpose. You may not know it now, or until Heaven, but nothing happens without a purpose. Oftentimes you learn the most from the hard times, and come out stronger on the other side of trials. All things work together for good.
It's a continual journey upward.
