We will understand it better by and by!

Good morning! My name is Charlotte and I am writing to help us give our first thoughts to the Lord.

In 1 Thessalonians 4 we read FURTHERMORE THEN WE BESEECH YOU, BRETHREN, AND EXHORT YOU BY THE LORD JESUS, THAT AS YOU HAVE RECEIVED OF US HOW YOU OUGHT TO WALK AND PLEASE GOD, SO YOU WOULD ABOUND MORE AND MORE. FOR YOU KNOW WHAT COMMANDMENTS WE GAVE YOU BY THE LORD JESUS.

FOR THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD, EVEN YOUR SANCTIFICATION....

I have heard preaching on sanctification as if it is a state that we have to live in to be able to see God. How I have perceived it over the years and turned a deaf ear to it is - that sanctification somehow nullifies grace and goes on to where the way you live is all that matters. In other words, works is what counts and not grace.

That is a misconception.

Sanctification is the Greek word hagiasmos which means consecration - holiness. So the next step after giving our lives totally and completely to God is to consecrate ourselves to living for him....not because grace is nullified but so that as Paul says YOU WOULD ABOUND MORE AND MORE.

Sanctification is kinda like humility. You can't write a book on 'Humility and how I achieved it.' Neither can you write a book on 'Sanctification and how I achieved it.' If this happens something is out of whack.

In my life every time I have thought I was somebody, God has delighted in showing me that HE TRUMPS ME. He can give me more lessons on 'What you need to do next' than anyone I know.

It's kinda like an onion. First you peel off the yellow/white skin, then you take off the layers one layer at a time. Just when you think that you have a perfect onion, there is another layer to come off.

That is the way it is when we truthfully serve God. When we think we have arrived, God can show us we have only begun.

This is not a put down - it is living from glory to glory. I can look back over my life and see the struggles I had at one time and it is laughable to me now because those struggles are no longer even a thought in my head because those things were conquered in my life.

Does that mean I am now sanctified/holy? No, at least not in my own eyes. It means I am going on to conquer another aspect in my life so that one day I can be like Jesus. When I become holy in my own eyes, I am in trouble.

It is like mountain climbing. We go up inch by inch. Sometimes the way is steep and seemingly dangerous, and then we reach a plateau where we can rest a while. All the time as we climb we are going up to the pinnacle of the mountain where God is. We struggle and we tire and we want to give up and then comes an easy spot where we just sail up that mountain not realizing how far we have come, because we don't look down, we look up. At some resting point, we look down and man! oh! man! how far up we have come. If I had realized how far, I might have gotten a nose bleed, but I was consecrated to living for God and seeing Him face to face, so my eyes were on Him not on anything else.

The things that tripped me up are just dust on the path already traveled and I go on trusting in God from glory to glory until one day when I get to the top of that mountain, I WILL SEE JESUS, and I will be changed into His likeness because I couldn't do it totally on my own.

Note: If we do not start at the bottom of the mountain and go up rung by rung. If we THINK we get to start 3/4s of the way up, then where is the place we go??????? The only place to go is to have God's job! That is where Satan got stumped. Thinking on he was more than what he was....He wanted God's job.

I don't know about you but I am content going from glory to glory and letting God be God, because I need Him to be my TRUMP. How about you?

I Peter 4:1-2 says FORASMUCH THEN AS CHRIST HAS SUFFERED FOR US IN THE FLESH, ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND; FOR HE THAT HAS SUFFERED IN THE FLESH HAS CEASED FROM SIN; THAT HE NO LONGER SHOULD LIVE THE REST OF HIS TIME IN THE FLESH TO THE LUSTS OF MEN, BUT TO THE WILL OF GOD.

Lord, help us to live the rest of our time not in the flesh but to the will of God. I pray for the ones reading this (and the ones who don't) that whatever their struggle is right now, You would help them to go through and come out on the other side, victorious, leaving that struggle as dust behind them...as just a memory of how I overcame. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Have a great day today!

Charlotte