Settling in…

This post is coming to you live from the freshly remodeled “man cave” or “home office” or “prayer closet”.  The last 3 days have seen the complete emptying, repainting, assembly of a desk and bookshelf (thank you, my dear sweet wife Mel), and a lot of organizing.

I am one of those sickos that love organizing…I really do.  I love to find places to store things and make everyday life more efficient, so you can imagine how excited I was about completely reorganizing my lair.  (for those who wish to see, I did post a few pics on my Flickr stream…)  As I put the items back in place, there we some things that I had to keep very close by that I used every day, and there were some items that I got rid of.  I chucked a ton of stuff…but it also made me realize that there are some items that are very important to me to keep close by in direct view at all times.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:3, the Bible gives us a very simple reminder of what is really important to God – our sanctification.  (I know…a BBW, but please keep reading).  Sanctification is the process of becoming more like Jesus and growing in spiritual maturity and holiness.  It’s looking, smelling, tasting, appearing more like Jesus in everything that we do, to everyone we meet. Quite simply the first part of the verse says:

For this is the will of God, your sanctification…

As a youth group leader, one of the biggest questions I get asked is “How do I know what to do in life?” I can recall getting really stressed out about that.  Your 17 years old and feel like you have to have the rest of your life completely planned out.  YIKES.  I love to take the kids who are stressing about this to this verse.  The most important thing to do?  Grow in the character of the Lord Jesus.  Submit yourself to His Word (which is at work within you) to change you daily.  Ask Him to give you His Holy Spirit to change your heart, or to give you the desire to change.  He will do so!  He promises…check out how Paul closes his letter to the Thessalonians in 5:23

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

If we keep our eyes focused on growing to be more like Jesus, by faith and thru the grace that he lavished on us at the cross -He promises to sanctify us.  Then it will be a heckuva lot easier to plot a course in our lives.