Once we make a profession of faith, we need to grow to be more like God. This daily devotion looks at how we grow through remembering and proving our commitment to God.
Nuggets
- In order to grow, we need to remember the past experiences God has taken us through to know what is in our hearts.
- In order to grow, we have to prove we are making a genuine profession of faith.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the Growing Our Soul series
Sanctification
Working out our salvation
Growing from milk babies to steak adults
Three different ways to discuss the same thing. Officially, it is sanctification.
Oh, yeah. We’ve talked sanctification lots. But usually when we talk about it, we look at it being how it is The Change.
Let’s look at it through the renewing our mind lens. I don’t remember looking at this verse for this topic, but let’s see where they take us.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
- Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- The perfected state indicates the combination of the spiritual graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Wow! Do you see how important it is?
When the Scriptures use the term milk, they are equating our spiritual life with that of a baby. We can hook this verse to I Corinthians 13: 11. “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (I Cor. 13: 11 ESV). The goal is to grow up.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
Grow through Remembering
“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years …” (Deut. 8: 2 NIV)
In order to grow, we need to remember the past experiences God has taken us through to know what is in our hearts.
We’ve talked in the past about remembering. In fact, there was a time when it seemed like everything tied to remembering.
Glossary
But God is talking about more than something that is lodged in our mind files that we can pull up when we want to feel nostalgic or need a laugh. He is talking about the hard stuff.
Do you remember the time God wanted you to do this mission project and you didn’t? Why did you balk? What needs to be changed so the next time you will do it?
Do you remember the time God wanted you to witness to that person? Same questions apply.
Do you remember the time you committed a major sin? What made it so attractive that you disobeyed God? What changes need to be made?
We have to do more than remember, though. Jay said we have to apply it. He wrote, “If knowledge is important, memory is important in precisely the same degree; for knowledge is nothing unless it be applied, and it cannot be applied unless it be remembered.”
Resource
We’ve talked before how important it is to evaluate where we are on the Sanctification Road. Over the last two years, I’ve come up with a bunch of worksheets to try to help us do that evaluation.
Worksheets
God wants us to make conscious decisions to follow Him. In order to do that, we need to know all we can about our relationships with Him.
Grow through Proving
“… to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands” (Deut. 8: 2 NIV)
In order to grow, we have to prove we are making a genuine profession of faith.
See, it isn’t about what is in our minds. It is “… in order to know what was in your heart …” (Deut. 8: 2 NIV).
The memories may be in our mind, but God is working on our hearts. Watkinson said that He fills our hearts with good things. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8: 28 ESV).
This version translates it as test. The New Living Testament says to prove your character.
That means prove our salvation. We have to prove that we genuinely believe in God as our Heavenly Father and Jesus as our Savior.
We believe it enough to change our character to reflect Them.
We show we believe it by making our repentance genuine. Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
One of the sermons I read was entitled The Blessing of Temptation. At first, I was going, “No, no, no, no, no.” How could that be a blessing?
Resource
Well, it is — if we are successful in withstanding the temptation, isn’t it? It is a way to show we aren’t the milk baby who can’t say no to the shiny sin.
We want to show God that we are growing. We want to know that we are progressing on the Sanctification Road.
Howe said that part two is then to forget it. He wrote, “The made soil on which we sow is an inheritance from the past, but we are to add a new layer of soil on which others are to sow.” Use it to grow, but don’t let it cut you off at the knees.
Resource
We’ve heard it say that, sometimes, our lives pass before our eyes when we are near death. I know that one day, the books of our lives will be opened, and our lives will then be reviewed.
That won’t be a movie before our eyes, though. That will be judgment.
I see this as being a review of all the good things and all of the bad things. Judgment will be based on it all.
Don’t think this is the judgment as to whether we will get into Heaven or not. That is only based on one thing — have we ABCDed or not.
We can’t do all the do’s and not do any of the don’ts and get into Heaven if we haven’t asked Jesus to be our Savior.
Webster called them “… the providential dispensations of Almighty God …” Stark said that shows us His glory.
God’s grace will be evident. God’s mercy will be on display. Remembering these memories and how God provided will showcase what areas on which we need to work.
Resource
- God’s providence is His care of us because of His loving nature to provide.
- God’s glory is, in part, the product of the adoration created when we praise God and give Him honor.
- God’s grace is the product of the joy of a life with God and His purity.
- God’s mercy is an act of sovereign will that produces an unexpected and undeserved response from God as He responds in love to our needs.
Should we be surprised that God is placing the emphasis on how we are progressing from the milk baby to steak adult? No. His concern is always our spiritual condition. Our comfort in this life is secondary to that.
Making the Connections
The whole purpose of remembering — and of going through the trials, in the first place — is “… to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart …” (Deut. 8: 2 NIV). God wants to know if we are spiritually dead or spiritually alive.
Those are the only two options. Are we following God or not? Do we have sin in our lives, or are we forgiven?
Watkinson wrote, “The moral idea is the grand end to which God governs the race, the nation, and governs us. God seeks to bring men to the knowledge of Himself, to purify them from false love and lusts, to teach them obedience, to make them fit for their great and holy inheritance.”
Resource
God is training us for His kingdom. Wadsworth called it a process of discipline. That fits in with our saying the Sanctification Road is a process.
Glossary
Resource
How Do We Apply This?
- Remember and be thankful for what God has done in the past and for what God will do in the future.
- Remember and pick out where you have made strides on the Sanctification Road. Celebrate those achievements.
- Remember and pick out where you still need God to fix you. Pray.
- Learn from our past mistakes.
- Obey in all matters.
Resource
When we are unbelievers, we can get so caught up with the expectation that we will have to give up every thing we like. That isn’t true.
It also doesn’t take into account what we will gain. Howe wrote, “And so one way of forgetting the past and leaving the things that are behind is to go and do better things.”
Resource
We gain so much when we submit to Sovereign God. We gain growing to be like Him.
Father God. We look at what you asked us to do, and we become concerned that we will not be able to do what you ask. We forget, unfortunately, that you are there guiding us as we go. You are there, providing us with things that are immensely better as well as within Your well. Help us to imitate you. Amen.
What do you think?
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