The Art of Becoming: Sanctification Never Ends

Sometimes I wake up frustrated that I’m not the person I know I can be. As I get older that frustration deepens at times where I feel myself repeating patterns that I know I should break, restarting habits that I thought I’d already conquered, and still somehow falling into new, more complicated habitual webs with harder consequences. This loop is the flesh that Paul talks about in Romans 7:15-20: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…and if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.” 

It’s almost a relief that an apostle can relate to this conundrum. The Good News is the Creator understands our condition—the human condition—and meets us with copious amounts of patience and grace. My own mind is not so gracious, nor patient. I recently found myself in a situation I never thought I would. It was a split decision in the heat of the moment, and in retrospect I can’t believe how out of character I chose to behave in that moment. It did not feel like a cognitively made decision either; rather, a knee-jerk reaction from the human part of myself that seems pre-programmed to react rather than decide. 

I entertained shame for a little while. But, much quicker than usual, I turned to Jesus instead. Together, we examined the parts of myself that caused me to make the choices I did. The reality is, the process of sanctification: the process of becoming consecrated, made Holy and transformed in the image of God, is a lifelong journey.  

As 2 Corinthians 12:9 states, “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Written by Christy Bradley