Sanctify
–verb (used with object), -fied, -fy·ing.
1. to make holy; set apart as sacred; consecrate
Beth (Moore) challenged us tonight in the study to do something in the next nine weeks of our study to raise our level of sanctification (I'm not sure exactly how she said it, but the bottom line was to give something up or do something that would create a mind-set of having this time set apart for God).
I'm struggling with this tonight. On the one hand, I feel like there are some things I could give up to set apart this time as sacred, reminding myself that I want to remove hindrances that will distract me. On the other hand, I tend to be legalistic to begin with and I don't want to miss what God has for me because I'm so busy avoiding certain activities in order to see Him better. I feel like before I "give something up" or "do something different," I really need to have a clear direction from God. On the other hand, it's hard to give stuff up, so I need to be open to the idea that God might be asking me to set aside an activity (or two) in order to have more time to set apart for Him. More to come on this I guess. In the meantime, I'm wearing a blue cord on my wrist and in addition to reminding myself of what is going on here, I'm also going to remind myself that I'm looking for God to lead me, especially in the direction of sanctification.
I enjoyed the time tonight. We pretty much spent the whole time in study listening to the first session's tape. A couple of things really stuck out, but the first was certainly when she said "I believe we can live our whole lives and never make it to the promised land." Her assertion is that the promised land for the Christian is NOT heaven, but a place of possession where my theology meets my reality (when my walk looks like my talk). I want this in theory, but I'm not sure that I really WANT it yet. It is going to be interesting to see if/when my heart and head align during this nine weeks.
The second thing was her five statement pledge of faith:
1. God is Who He says He is
2. God can do what He says He will do
3. I am who God says I am
4. I can do all things through Christ
5. God's Word is alive and active in me.
Man, if I can truly believe these things, there ain't nothing in this world that can stop me from reaching my promised land!! I'm excited about this study. It will be cool to see what God is gonna do!
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Listening to her, I got the idea that sanctification was more to make us more holy. To be coupled with faith to bring us closer to a place where we can hear and obey.
The way you are describing it is less of removing something that makes us unholy and more giving up an aspect of our life to free time to focus on God. Like fasting or something.
I guess I'm just confused as to what we're supposed to be doing/giving up. I've been praying about it and haven't gotten a clear answer on what I'm supposed to be doing but I think part of it is because I don't quite understand the concept still.
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