We do not just sit idly by as the process of sanctification happens within us. We have an active part to play in the process as well. While it is true that only God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, can produce the fruit of the Spirit, we must also play our position which is to give our whole heart to Him, study the Word of God, pray without ceasing, and picking up our cross daily. Picking up our cross is a symbol to the world that Jesus Christ represents us. He is the atonement for our sins. It also is the active place were we daily deny the Will of self and die for the glory of God.
"So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin", (Romans 7:21-25). This is our Apostle Paul not speaking as once going through this before coming to Christ, but as his daily present struggle. Paul also states; "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize", (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). There is an active beating of our body into submission. We want our fleshly body submit to the Will of God!!! In order to do this we have to know our weaknesses. A sprinter who knows that they have a hard time getting out of the starting blocks will devote a tremendous amount of time working on getting out of the blocks. We must see the wicked places in our hearts and draw nearer to God so that these places of temptation can be beat into submission. This process is not for spectators, it is designed for those who wish to run the race for their crown!!! Be Encouraged!!! Have a wonderful life of enjoying the process on purpose!!!!!
Romans 12
A Living Sacrifice
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
1 Thessalonians 4
Plea for Purity
1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given[a] us His Holy Spirit.
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