Sanctification
The Bible says, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you
a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” 1 Peter 3:15 (KJV)
When
a person becomes a Believer, he usually undergoes some radical life changes, especially if he has had an immoral background.
Through the first steps of spiritual growth and self-denial, he gets rid of the large, obvious sins. But sad to say, many
believers stop there. They don’t go on to eliminate the little sins that clutter the landscape of their lives. Gordon
MacDonald, in his book Ordering Your Private World, told of an experience in his own life that illustrates this truth.
“Some years ago, when Gail and I bought the old abandoned New Hampshire farm we now call Peace Ledge, we found the site
where we wished to build our country home strewn with rocks and boulders. It was going to take a lot of hard work to clear
it all out....The first phase of the clearing process was easy. The big boulders went fast. And when they were gone, we began
to see that there were a lot of smaller rocks that had to go too. But when we had cleared the site of the boulders and the
rocks, we noticed all of the stones and pebbles we had not seen before. This was much harder, more tedious work. But we stuck
to it, and there came the day when the soil was ready for planting grass.”
When we
focus our attention on God’s Holy Spirit He will continue our sanctification by focusing our attention on witnessing
to the Lost. Much cleansing is accomplished when we take our focus off of self and onto our joining our Redeemer where He
is at work all around us. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing and that is reaching the Lost and encouraging
Believers!
Daily Chronological Bible Reading: Isaiah 35-36