See I Peter 1:1-2 “To God’s elect, strangers in the world… who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.”
I Peter 1 is beautiful. It begins telling us that we have been chosen for the “sanctifying work of the Spirit.” Sanctification means that we are becoming more and more like Jesus. Sanctification means that we are becoming the person that God created us to be. Sanctification means change.
Today one thing will be abundantly clear in our daily routine: change is all around us. Even yesterday the SC Governor ordered that public schools continue to be cancelled through April. This is unusual.
So the question is not whether or not we shall change during this season. To resist change during this extraordinary moment would be to detach from life and from our neighbor. The question is simply what kind of change shall we experience: change rooted in fear, or change rooted in love? Change that is of the world, or that which is of the Spirit?
Spirit-filled sanctifying change does not involve fear; just suffering. It helps us become more like Jesus. It changes our hearts so much that we will even feel like “strangers in the world.” And the only thing that will really cause us to embrace this kind of change is the grace of God. So during this season of the virus, I pray that you are aware of how you are changing – and that that change is gloriously profound.
This will be made clearer if you enjoy listening to “Holy Water” by the Christian group “We the Kingdom:”
