Faint Not

Despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him. Hebrews 12:5

"Am I prepared to let God grip me by His power and do a work in me that is worthy of Himself? Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me; sanctification is God’s idea of what He wants to do for me, and He has to get me into the attitude of mind and spirit where at any cost I will let Him sanctify me wholly.” (My Utmost for His Highest, August 14) Oswald Chambers gives us keen insights into God's work of sanctification.  The method, means and goals of sanctification are God's idea and His plan, not ours. Sanctification is easier when the focus is the sins of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) that are obviously not godly. We can accept "Stop doing that sinful action entirely".  It may be difficult, and take time to break a habit, but we despise it so we submit to His fiery discipline. We know it's what's wrong about us. The hardest areas of sanctification, by far the most painful and bewildering, is when God is sanctifying what is right about us, the core strengths of how God has made us or the calling of God in our lives. The world celebrates our strengths; our gifts have made a way for us in our chosen endeavors.

God comes to temper and mold those gifts and callings. It can be disorienting at first because we think God's work must be in the first category of "stop doing that sinful action" but it's not. God’s work is in a deeper category of self-control and submission. It's about degrees, attitudes, and constraints, less about the action. When hit with sudden challenges, I've asked the Lord many times if He wants me to stop some planned course of action and He tells me to continue but with this new constraint. It's like the coach giving his team a familiar drill but now with added weight or challenge in order to strengthen skill and endurance. The Apostle Paul experienced four shipwrecks in total: three mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11:25 and a fourth detailed in Acts 27.  He was not sailing daily as a crew member so surviving four shipwrecks is an extraordinary number, way beyond happenstance. Every one of these shipwrecks were easily avoided through the power of the Lord and we can be sure that Paul was praying His heart out not to be shipwrecked.  We would think that the Lord would help Paul avoid these seemingly senseless catastrophes but it was all part of the "many things he [Paul] must suffer for My name’s sake" (Acts 9:16).  

Refining scrap silver from its many commercial applications in circuit boards, chips and membranes requires multiple processes with different temperatures and different chemicals. It's a fascinating science and scrap seekers are even more willing to endure the laborious process when the price of silver is higher. God sees great value in each of HIs Elect and he uses a myriad of means to refine us. "In this you [should] greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold [or silver] that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:6-7). May the Lord encourage our hearts today in the midst of His sanctifying work that He finds us worthy of His personal attention and care.