THE PROMISE OF SALVATION IS NOT MEANT JUST TO GIVE HOPE, BUT TO SPUR YOU ON TO HOLY LIVING

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”—1 Thessalonians 5:23

Did you know that God did not save you just to keep you from hell and to get you into heaven?  His top priority while you are here on earth is to shape you into the image of His Son. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).  Sanctification (being set a part for God’s own purpose) is a mutual process.  In other words, God does not do it all for the believer.  We have a responsibility to cooperate with Him and actively participate in the process. 

Yet many Christians have a passive attitude about the life of faith.  They tolerate sin and smooth it over with the age-old excuse, “Nobody is perfect!” 

When you received Christ as your Savior, you took the first step in your walk with Him.  Your walk will last throughout eternity.  However, you also stepped into spiritual warfare with Satan.  The Enemy may have lost your soul, but he is going to do everything he can to hinder, sidetrack, and discourage you.  The last thing he wants is a saint who is on fire for the Lord and useful in the kingdom of God.

 

But many believers have neglected their responsibility to live holy lives.  In fact, some of them look and act just likes the unbelieving world.   Sexual immorality is one area of compromise that the apostle Paul addressed specifically but in truth we should abstain from anything that interferes with godliness.  

 

 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality: that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles [unbelievers] who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 4: 3-8).

Have you allowed something in your life that should not be there?  If so, you need to get rid of it now.  You do not want a thread of sin to become a rope, then a chain, and finally a cable that traps you in a stronghold.  Turn back to the Lord, and let your sanctification continue.

Prayer—Father I repent for allowing _____________to be in my life.  I ask you to remove every thread of sin in my life so that I can life a holy honorable life for you, in Jesus Name. Amen.