I’m so often frustrated by what I consider to be a very slow sanctification process. I so often feel like Paul in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” I came across a blog that talks about this very issue which you can read here. It talks about a man who came to Christ after many years of rebellion and was frustrated by the slow process of sanctification. The thing we so often forget is that we have so many different layers of sin that need to be dealt with! And at the very heart of these issues is pride and idolatry.

At the heart of every sin is ultimately thinking that something else is going to bring us more pleasure than God. How often do we try to take matters into our own hands instead of trusting them to God? How many times to we think that we have all the right answers instead of trusting what God has already done and said? As Calvin said, our hearts are idol factories. We are always looking for something else to put on God’s throne and worship.

Tied to idolatry is the issue of pride. I wrote a little blog about this earlier this week but want to add some more thoughts to that. Lewis writes, in Mere Christianity “It is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.” Ultimately what believers need to do, as I said earlier is not think less of themselves, but think of themselves less. That is the key to true humility.

Finally, sanctification may be a slow gradual process, but it is a process. I can look back on my life and be frustrated by what I’ve determined is too slow, but then looking back over a longer period of time I can see how much I’ve grown. For example, last year when I was working as a hospital software support guy, I had to be incredible patient with people, which is something I had been praying for for a very long time. Many of the people I was helping would comment on how patient I was with them (externally at least). After 8 months of doing that job I realized how much more patient I truly had become, not just externally. God uses so many different circumstances in order to bring about our personal holiness.