Even Your Sanctification

As the year was closing out, 1 Thessalonians 4:3a stood out to me as a sweet encouragement, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification…” Sanctification, it is a purification, the state of purity, to be made holy. In the Old Testament, the instruments for the tabernacle were sanctified, set apart, and made holy unto the Lord for the fulfillment of His service in the daily ministration of work and sacrifices. The will of God is for me to be made holy, set apart, purified, ready, and fit for the Master’s use (2 Timothy 2:21). If I truly believe that the Lord is sovereign, that His hand is over all of my life, including the details, and that it is His will for me to be sanctified as it says in 1 Thessalonians, then who am I shake my head (or my fist) at His ways and means? Is that not demanding to be placed in the position of God, wanting the right to design and control my circumstances? I am the clay, He is the Potter. My heart is safe in His hands. When I do not understand, when doubts and questions arise, I can humbly, but with assurance, take my position in Christ, look upward, and trust in Him who spoke the world into existence and who has said, “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.” (Isaiah 43:1)

As I closed the chapter of 2025, I looked back at what I felt was closing out a year of heartache. This last year was a year of pain and challenge, as I walked through new territories of difficulty I had never faced before, as well as some old battles that had to be fought again. As I progressed through the year, especially into the summer months, I realized that my unofficial theme that the Lord kept impressing on me was “trust”. Trust is a simple word, and it is used in a large variety of ways, but for me, 2025 will always stand out as a year where I was continually asked to simply trust my Heavenly Father. 

If I pick the most quoted and beloved verse of 2025, I would say Psalm 28:7, “The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in Him and I am helped.” There was so much in this last year that I did not understand, that I had to grapple with, struggle over, cry about, and grieve, but one of the amazing aspects of trust is that the need to understand and comprehend all of my circumstances is transferred to another, in this case, the Lord Jesus Christ. My Heavenly Father, who watches over the small sparrow and has complete knowledge of the number of hairs on my head, on Him I place all the need to understand, all the grief and pain that I feel, and submit to not comprehending it all and allow that He does, and that is sufficient for me. 

When this transition of the desire for control is made, I am helped, I am raised up, set upright again, strength is poured into me, and I have all grace to place one foot in front of the other. It is His will that I be sanctified. I wish to be made more into the image of the Lord Jesus, so I can trust Him with the ways and means which He chooses to accomplish it. One of my favorite books phrases it well, as one character desires to uplift his drooping companion, “I was moody and restless the other day, said Hugh,--- desponding of everything; and then I came upon this Psalm; (Psalm 73:1, “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.”) and it made me ashamed of myself. I had been disbelieving it, and because I could not see how things were going to work good I thought they were going to work evil. I thought we were wearing out our lives alone here in a wearisome way, and I forgot that it must be the very straightest way that we could get home. I am sure we shall not want anything that will do us good; and the rest I am willing to want...”

So, rest, my dear sisters. It is His will that each of us be sanctified, and He does truly know best how to accomplish this. Let us not raise ourselves up in opposition to His ways and means, but embrace them, trust in them, for it is the very straightest way that we can get safely home.