Tag: patience

The Beauty of Sanctification

by Emily Rose MasseyDevotionals / Motherhood / Sanctification

I am a mama of three precious boys, and each one is special to me. My oldest son recently turned eight years old, and one of my favorite things to do leading up to my sons’ birthdays is to look through old photos of them and the memories we have shared. My heart swells when I see sweet memories pop up on Facebook on the day each one was born. As I was reflecting upon these last eight years, not only have I watched my boys grow up, but I can’t help but see how much the Lord has changed me and grown me in the midst of motherhood too.

According to the Bible this process of change and growth in the Lord is called sanctification. According to the website gotquestions.org:
“The word sanctification is related to the word saint; both words have to do with holiness. To “sanctify” something is to set it apart for special use; to “sanctify” a person is to make him holy.”

Knowing how many times I have failed as a mother (losing my patience and temper with my children countless times), I am thankful that just like our regeneration when the Lord makes us born-again, sanctification is a work of the Spirit in our heart and life. We partner with the Holy Spirit in the process of our sanctification, but God is the faithful One who does the deep work of transformation.

Paul’s final exhortation in his first letter to the church in Thessalonica reveals this beautiful truth to us as he proclaims:
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, NIV).

God will sanctify us because He wants to see us conformed to the image of Christ. When we are saved, we are given Christ’s righteousness and that will never change no matter what. Our position in Christ is forever fixed. Nothing can snatch us from His hand We will never be perfect this side of heaven, which is why we rest in the finished work of the cross of Christ, but we should be walking in holiness little by little each passing day. One way this occurs in our life is through studying the scriptures and other spiritual disciplines such as prayer, serving others, and consistent discipleship and evangelism. The Spirit of God guides us into all truth and convicts our heart of sin. The more study the Bible and exercise spiritual discipline, the more the Holy Spirit renews our mind. This renewal of the mind helps us to think on eternal matters and soon, worldly thinking and fleshly desires become less of a temptation for us the longer we walk with the Lord. Our behavior and attitude begin to change, and God gives us a desire to love, obey, and serve Him with fervor! This is transformation is something I am so grateful to have experienced these last eight years. I cannot wait to see what the next eight years (and beyond, Lord willing) has in store for me. May the God of peace continue to sanctify us through and through!

Father God,
I long for my life to reflect You so that others see how excellent and perfect Your ways are compared to the ways of this world that is fallen, corrupt, and void of Your perfect love and truth. I often fail and give into fleshly temptation, and I thank You that I have been justified and made righteous in Your sight because of Your Son, Christ Jesus! You still desire for me to mature and grow in my walk, despite my shortcomings. You are a God who transforms and purifies, so I ask that You would help me renew my mind with Your Word so that I can know the good, acceptable, and perfect will of Yours and see my life conformed to the image of Your Son. You are faithful to do this work of sanctification in my life, so thank You for strengthening me in my spiritual disciplines. May I have a testimony of a great transformation to give You all the glory! In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Putting Away Anger

by Emily Rose MasseyDevotionals / Marriage

My husband and I will be married twelve years next month, and although we would never admit to “having it all together,” one thing that we have always fought to hold onto is our pursuit to work through our disagreements, however heated they may become, and never go to sleep angry with one another. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we try our best to be quick to forgive and ask for forgiveness. 

But since we are still on this side of eternity, we are continually being sanctified every day, and sometimes our flesh and pride gets in the way of that pursuit for peace and that was the case in a recent argument that he and I experienced. The two of us became so angry with one another that we continued to go in circles and rehash the argument. I found myself not thinking clearly and saying things that were hurtful towards my husband, things that I did not believe to be true. I would constantly interrupt my husband with what I wanted to say and never let him voice his concerns. In my frustration, I became so exhausted and confused that I didn’t have any energy to continue the conversation. Thankfully, before we drifted off to sleep, we both took some time to calm down and began to apologize for our anger and hurtful words. Knowing anger that is not restrained can often lead to sin, and in this case it did, we both repented to the Lord and to each other. We can find much instruction and wisdom in the Bible regarding the sin of unrestrained anger. James 1 has some beautiful instruction for us that is a wonderful reminder for our hearts, especially in marriage relationship:

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20, ESV).

Do you notice how our conversations with each other can be tied to the misuse of anger? This is especially true if we are not considering others before ourselves when we want to voice our opinion or concerns. The misuse of anger is called unrighteous anger because it is selfish and prideful in nature. Those who do not think of others when speaking are walking in pride, which can often lead to anger if met with resistance and tension. When anger is unrestrained and rooted in pride, we are not walking righteously before God. We are to be quick to listen before speaking and patient when engaging in a tense discussion. What wise advice for married couples! Anger is sure to occur when two people disagree, but we do not have to give into the temptation to allow that anger to fuel hurtful or hate-filled words towards the other person, sinning against them and more importantly, sinning against God who calls us to walk in righteousness. We need to prefer others above ourselves in our conversations with one another. May the Lord help us and sanctify us in our marriages and relationships with others.

Father, Your Word has so much to say on the sin of anger, yet we give into this temptation all the time when we are challenged in our selfishness. I repent for sinning against those who have been made in Your image when I did not prefer them above myself and allowed my words to cause pain. This is especially true in my marriage. I have allowed my pride to lead me into unrestrained anger by lashing out and interrupting in my disagreements. Help me to follow Your wisdom of being slow to speak and quick to listen so that anger does not cause me to walk in unrighteous behavior towards my husband and brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for Your grace to empower me to walk more Christ-like. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

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Beauty in Its Time

by Emily Rose MasseyDevotionals

I have lived in the Midwest of the United States my entire life. We experience all four seasons, but it usually goes something like this: 5-6 months of Winter, 2-3 weeks of Spring, 4-5 months of Summer, and 2-4 weeks of Fall. By the time the extreme months of Winter and Summer are over, we get to enjoy the mild temperatures for less than a month most years. 

I have to admit, Winter is my least favorite season and out of all the seasons, and in the Midwest, it is the longest. I wait for Spring to come with great expectation, but come January, I am usually growing extremely impatient and ready to pack my bags and move our family to somewhere much warmer!

But, just like the year before, the temperature begins to slowly climb, buds begin to form on the trees, and the grass and plants begin to come back to life and show those vibrant green colors. Soon enough, fresh leaves are fully covering what were barren branches and flowers are in full bloom, welcoming us into Spring once again. I never have to worry if the seasons are going to change because they always do; God is a master artist like that and has it all under control. 

Just like seasons are set to a specific time that God ordains, so are events in our life, and on an even bigger scale, our journey with Him as it unfolds. Only He knows how to take a rebellious heart of stone and transform it into a heart of flesh that praises His Holy name. This profound reality of God forming a life into one who learns how to deny self and worship the Lord is not an overnight event. No, just like seasons change in their own time, the change of a life for the glory of Christ is a process. In God’s perfecting timing, we will begin to see the transformation. 

Ecclesiastes is a book in the Bible written by one of the wisest men to live, King Solomon. In this book, Solomon discusses the ebb and flow of life: time, foolishness, suffering, and wisdom are some of the topics that are poetically unwrapped throughout this Old Testament book. 

Chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes focuses on the concept of time in the heart of man. Verse 11 explains to us that God is the holder of time and specifically that “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (11a). The verse goes on to say that God “has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 11b, NIV). 

Often times, as humans, we become extremely discouraged when we fail or when we think we should be further along than we are, but God is continually working in our hearts and in our lives, and the process of conforming us to the image of His dear Son rests solely in His hands as we lean not on our own understanding, but trust completely in Him and His ways (Proverbs 3:5-6).

With the help of the Holy Spirit, we learn to walk in obedience. He leads us into all truth as we study the Word and renew our mind to replace old ways of thinking with God’s perfect will. 

Perhaps this process of renewing our mind and seeing transformation in behavior and attitude is slowed down because our eyes become too fixated on cares of this life and the temporal.

Our hearts were made to look to the hope in eternity, but if we are not careful, we can be consumed with worry when things are not changing as quickly as we would like them to or when our circumstances in our life are challenging or uncomfortable.

Soon we are trying to control things that go on in our life and forget to ask the Lord for His help or even acknowledge that He may be using all that may be difficult in our life to work for our good and turn it all into something beautiful. 

Do you feel like you are stuck in a “winter” season in your life and are longing to see blooms of new life?

Take those concerns to the Lord today in prayer. Write down the worries that are weighing you down and surrender them to God.

dOnly He is able to make things beautiful in its time. Don’t lose hope…Springtime is just around the corner!

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