Day 22: CREATED TO BECOME LIKE CHRIST

Huh, I ask myself why is today the challenge on thinking about becoming like Christ when I know that I have been short tempered with my boys, because I felt exhausted and just wanted them to listen? Isn't it often like this, that God chooses to challenge us exactly when and where we need it.

So, Rick Warren challenges us in terms of SANCTIFICATION. What is sanctification? It is the process of becoming more like Christ. We are declared to be holy, but we are in a process to match our life to that declaration. There is no quick fix or five steps or special prayer to get there, it is a painstaking, uncomfortable process that we must daily struggle through. Warren says that "God wants you to develop the kind of character described in the beatitudes of Jesus (Matt 5:1-12), the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), Paul's great chapter on love (1 Cor. 13) and Peter's list of the characteristics of an effective and productive life (2 Peter 1:5-8)." Yet, in order to develop these we must struggle like the caterpillar, that seemingly diminishes, hides in it's cocoon and must struggle to emerge.  Nothing of value is easy.

We have been challenged to embrace that our purpose in Christ. That we are created for his pleasure and glory, that we are to worship Him in all that we do and that our life is fulfilled when we find ourselves in Him. Yet, so many of us struggle so much, we asks how, what is the secret, how can I change. What I have seen is this, in my own power I am weak and unable to be the person I want to be. However, in Christ I am changed and transformed, merely by being in his presence, by seeking him, by fumbling in the darkness, towards the light. Instead of running away from God, I run towards Him, I bring him my failings and my fears. I call out to Him in song, in prayer, in poems. In my sadness and despair, I sit in His house, in my brokenness I worship with tears. I tell Him that I am weak and that I do not know how to go on and in that place I have received healing, direction and sanctification.

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