One of the things that no one ever warned me about was that after God saved me, things would actually get harder for me. As I look back now, it is so clear to me how blind I was to spiritual things. Even though I grew up in the church, I had no understanding of grace and I was completely wrapped up in a works-based religious system. Then, when God opened my eyes and allowed me to grasp his incredible grace, I got to experience his joy and I also got to experience conviction. I learned that God had created a new creation within me and I was completely forgiven, but I also learned that old habits don’t die easily.
I didn't have the language for it at the time, but over the past decade I have gotten to experience more and more of God’s sanctification. The truth of sanctification shows that God considered me holy as I stood before him at the moment of salvation, but then there is also a practical side of sanctification where God is progressively transforming me into the image of his Son and making me more and more holy every day. The image that we were originally created to bear has been marred by our sinful and rebellious hearts; but God’s eternal plan was to create a people to be pleasing to Him and glorify Him, and we as a people are being sanctified to restore that perfect image.
It hasn’t always meant this much to me. As one of my mentors once told me, the spiritual walk is not a sprint but instead a crawl. It has been very slow, but I can’t tell you how overjoyed I am to look back and see God using all of the circumstances in my life to transform me and make me more holy. The hurts and habits that used to bring me so much grief and pain are now markers of God’s grace. He has redeemed those areas of my life, helped me heal, and even replaced those sinful desires and affections with holy desires and affections. I am still certainly not perfect. I don’t think any of us will be before we stand face-to-face with our Creator, but it certainly changes my perspective and gives me hope to know that my Savior desires not only for me to be holy before Him but also to be able to live this life with holy desires by seeking Him above all things. This gives purpose to every good and bad circumstance in my life, and I’ve learned to take joy in the fact that God is transforming me into the image of his Son so that I can enjoy Him forever. I will probably look back to this point in another decade and realize just how immature and sinful I am right now. But how incredible it is to know that the eternal, Triune God has invited me in to his perfections and it is not based on who I am but what He has done for me.
-Daniel Moore, Middle School Pastor