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.

Since they were children, I have trained my kids on how to work hard and follow through on jobs. Two of my sons have run lawn-mowing companies, one is now climbing the corporate finance ladder. My oldest daughter has also worked hard first babysitting, then in food-service, and now going to college and in office administration.

When I was a kid, my dad also taught me how to work hard. We were missionaries and I had to pay for a lot of my own things. So what was the point of this hard work ethic? Partly it was to be successful in life, for sure. But there is a spiritual component here as well.

We serve a God who values excellence! Just look at his standard for righteousness — it is not merely doing some good things, it is thinking, doing, and saying the best things. The right thought, with the right motive, and the appropriate action that honors God. He desires to clean us up and clean us out from inside our hearts.  This is called Sanctification.  And this is a process all about hard work and faithfulness.  God does the work, but we have to be open and honest about sin and our need for his healing touch.

Take for example a cancer patient who goes to a specialist. The physician who specializes in cancer treatments can assess the need for surgery or treatment, and create a plan for this process so the cancer can be removed and the patient healed. But the patient has to want the surgeon to operate. He (or she) has to agree to the operation.

In like fashion, God wants to operate on our hearts. He wants to sanctify them, to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. And when we follow him, we commit to allowing him to change us from the inside out. He is committed to doing all the hard work on the operation side. But we must be committed to doing the challenging work of being honest about our sin and changing our behaviors and thought processes.

His goal for us is that our whole soul, spirit, and body will be blameless. This is not a “good enough“ standard. It is a standard of excellence in spiritual living. God wants us to be how he designed us to be — in righteous relationship with him. 

Many people say they want to be the best version of themselves. And they try really hard to do this on their own. However, this is not attainable on our own. The best version of myself is only achieved through total humility and submission to God‘s process of sanctification.

Lord, sanctify me through and through. I hold nothing back. You have full access to my heart, my mind, my spirit, my body, and my actions. Teach me what it means to be wholly committed to you. I can’t wait to see what great things you will do through me!