God's Work In Us

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.


There are days when the Christian life, and how it is supposed to be lived out, seems like a mirage, an illusion, an impossibility. We look at ourselves in the mirror, and we see ourselves - each flaw, each shortcoming, each way we failed to life up to the standard that day. And it seems the more we strive, and the harder we work, the harder we fall.

Ah, but we are given a promise - it will happen, we will be sanctified through and through. God, Himself will do it! Isn’t that amazing? The Almighty God of this universe has called us - He has called us to be kept blameless, body, mind, and spirit - and He will do it. I love that part. It doesn’t say that He wants us to do it, or that He will help us do it. No. It says that He will do it. He will sanctify us through and through. He will keep us blameless at the coming of our Lord.

How? He’s already done it! He took our every fault and sin and shortcoming and failure, past, present, and future, and He placed them on the marred and disfigured shoulders of His beloved Son. He made a trade - our sin for Christ’s righteousness. "It is finished," right? Not, "It has just begun." It was done, complete, and perfect when Jesus gave up His spirit. That trade happened long before we were even born. And it is the working of that righteousness in us that continues to change us, and mold us, and form us into the glorious creatures God originally intended. It is nothing we do, it is everything God has done.

So, let’s get off our own backs, stop fighting it, beating ourselves up, and just be. We need to just stop and let God do His thing, His beautiful, glorious work in us. Let’s just look to Him and praise Him, because the One who calls us is faithful and He will do it. Amen!