Abrasive

Rough

Some things are just hard. Everyone goes through things that are difficult. Unfortunately, many people miss the times of blessing because they are always focusing on the negative things that have happened or they are worried about what will happen next. Oftentimes, we get trapped into a pattern of categorizing everything that happens as either good or bad. However, the truth is that if we truly believe that God is in control and that God has a wise and ultimately good plan for us as His people, then we must seek to understand the purpose behind everything that God brings or allows in our lives.

The Will of God

This last Sunday, Matthew brought such a good message to us from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. As we considered this text, my mind and heart was captured by verse 3 which says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” I have often thought about discerning God’s will as trying to figure out the particular choice or decision that He would want for me to make. As a result I was always assured that making the “right” decision would obviously lead to a better, easier, more pleasurable outcome. But even as I write this, I hope you can see the subtle form of prosperity gospel hidden in this kind of thinking. 

The flaw in my thinking has to do with the assumption that what God desires for us is our pleasure and happiness. We probably project this on to God because we desire for ourselves pleasure and happiness. But thinking about this verse helps me to understand that what God wills for me is my sanctification. Sanctification simply means that God wants us to be holy (1 Peter 1:14-16).

But if holiness and not happiness is at the heart of God’s will then maybe the methods and mechanics that He chooses may look different than the pleasure and ease that I had assumed. Hard things and difficult circumstances are not merely tolerated by God for a season but ordained by God for our sanctification.

The Word of God

But someone will say, “didn’t Jesus pray to the Father that His followers would be sanctified in the truth which is God’s word?” The answer to that is yes (John 17:17). Jesus knew that to be sanctified believers needed the pure truth of the Word of God. But we not only need to know the truth of these doctrines but we need to obey and observe them (Matthew 28:19-20). The reality is that God has not called us to merely know the truth but to believe it. But to genuinely believe it means that our actions must be conformed to it (Romans 12:1-2).

The Work of God

But be assured, I am not saying that this is to be accomplished in our own puny strength. Rather, the Scripture teaches that our sanctification is the work of God. When Paul was writing to the Philippians concerning this very issue of the Christian’s sanctification he was clear that our working out of our salvation is the result of God working in us according to what pleases Him (Philippians 2:12-13).

The Point of this article is that God will many times use even painful hardships to refine us as believers. Iron sharpens iron because of the hard and abrasive friction. In the same way God uses hard things to strengthen and sharpen His people (Proverbs 27:17). Ultimately, we must conclude that if God has begun the good work in us by bringing us to Himself (Philippians 1:6) then it will be continued in our growing sanctification toward the final glorification promised by God.

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