Latest / First15 Devotional / Sanctification in the Waiting

Transcript

Sanctification in the Waiting · First15 Devotional

• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's vital to the Christian life that we, as sons and daughters of the most high God, allow our affections to be stirred by the loving, powerful nature of our heavenly Father.
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Too often, we feel that God is distant or separated from us.
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Too often, we allow misconceptions or lies to place a rift between us and experiencing God.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: So as we spend time this week focusing on God's character, allow who he is to stir up your desire to know him even more.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the first 15 podcast.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our Scripture for today comes from 2 Peter 3, verse 9, Scripture says, The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count's slowness, but His patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
• 1:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: First Corinthians 134 tells us, love is patient.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Patience is a part of love that doesn't feel fun at the beginning.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: It feels like an act of self-control rather than passion, as if the two aren't perfectly connected.
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it often comes across as a sign of weakness, rather than an attribute of the bold and powerful,
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: but Scripture teaches us a different view of patience.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Second Peter chapter three verses eight and nine says, but do not overlook this one fact beloved that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness but His patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance.
• 2:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: God in His passionate desire for restored relationship with all His children has perfect patience toward us.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: His passion leads Him to patience.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it is in his desire to see us grow in all manner of holiness and godliness, that he wants to bring about the restoration of all things to him with the coming of the new heavens and earth.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's open our hearts today to become more like our Heavenly Father and allow him to create in us a heart worthy of him who has so patiently loved us.
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I fear that much of the bright of Christ is living day-to-day, getting by until Jesus returns.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I fear that in our complacency, we are not engaging in the purposes for which Christ came.
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: God's intention here is to use us to bring about a saving knowledge to all those around us.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: His plan was for restoration of relationship here, not just biting our time while suffering from a lack of his reality working in our lives.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Second Peter 314 says, therefore beloved, since you are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: and Hebrews 12 verses three through 11 says, it is for discipline that you have to endure.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: God is treating you as sons.
• 4:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live?
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
• 5:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: because God loves us.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: He does not desire for us to remain as we were or as we are.
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: His plan is to do such a work in us that we live on this earth as Jesus did.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: But He is entirely patient to accomplish this work.
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: He is entirely patient with our sanctification.
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I began engaging in the process of sanctification, I was filled with frustration.
• 6:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: For the first time, I began to see all the dirt and muck covering up this beautiful gift of a new nature God had given me.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I felt like I was never going to be able to get through all this sin that seemed to so entangled me to my old nature and I was right.
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Scripture teaches us that it is God in His patience who produces holiness and Godliness.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: In my own strength, I have no ability to change my heart.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: My only job is to engage with him and allow him to work in and through me.
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Philippians 213 says, for it is God who works in you, both to well and to work for his good pleasure.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: the NLT version says it this way, for God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
• 7:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: God's desire isn't for us to engage in works that have the appearance of morality, but aren't flowing from the true desire of our hearts.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: His longing is to mold and shape our hearts by His love into a perfect reflection of His heart, so that we might live true lives of holiness out of the overflow of what He has done in us.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Only He can accomplish such a work.
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: only he can fill us with the ability to truly love.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And as second Peter 39 tells us, he is patient to do so.
• 7:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Spend time in prayer, discovering the patient heart of your heavenly father.
• 7:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Spend time allowing his love to draw you into the process of sanctification.
• 8:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: and allow the Holy Spirit to do a mighty work in you today, bringing about holiness and godliness, where it seemed only sin and worldliness could dwell.
• 8:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we begin, meditate on the patient heart of your heavenly Father.
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Reflect on how His patience comes from His passionate love for us.
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: and next, meditate on God's desire to produce holiness and godliness in you.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Allow this truth to grow in connection to God's love.
• 9:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: His love leads him to discipline and work in us.
• 10:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: and last, engage in the process of sanctification with the Holy Spirit, allow him to reveal to you, places in your life that do not align with your new nature.
• 10:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ask him to take you to the source of your sin and correct your understanding so that you might walk in holiness today.
• 11:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: God has promised to deliver us from this world.
• 11:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: We have hope that the trials and tribulations of this world will not be forever.
• 11:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is coming again to restore all things to be as they should.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: find peace and joy in the fact that God is both working now and will work then.
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: He is both healing, transforming, and freeing us now as He will then.
• 12:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: In His patience, He is passionately waiting for more to come to know Him.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: May your life be a reflection of his perfect love to all those around you.
• 12:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: That Jesus might gain the due reward of his suffering through you.
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to today's devotional.
• 12:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Josh Miller with first 15.
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we embark on this new week focused on God's character, I want to encourage you to check out the worship songs we have posted on our website for today.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Every day there's a link to a worship song where you can center your heart and mind around who God is through worship.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's something that happens in worship that I truly believe doesn't happen in any other spiritual practice.
• 13:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you're interested, head over to first15.org slash today to check out today's worship zone.
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Have a wonderful rest of your day and may God bless you as you see Kim.