"Too often our practical view of sanctification, discipleship, and counseling is shortsighted. If you memorize and call to mind one special Bible verse, will it clean up all the mess? Will prayer drive all the darkness away? Will remembering that you are a child of God, justified by faith, shield your heart against every evil? Will careful self-discipline and a plan to live constructively eliminate all failure? Is it enough to sit under good preaching and have daily devotions? Is honest accountability to others the decisive key to walking in purity? These are all very good things. But none of them guarantees that three weeks from now, or three years, or thirty years, you will not struggle to learn how to love rather than lust. We must have a vision for a long process (lifelong), with a glorious end (“the day of Jesus Christ”), that is actually going somewhere (today). Put those three together in the right way, and you have a practical theology that’s good to go and good for the going.....WHAT MATTERS MOST IS NOT THE DISTANCE YOU'VE COVERED. IT'S NOT THE SPEED YOU'RE GOING. IT'S NOT HOW LONG YOU'VE BEEN A CHRISTIAN. IT'S THE DIRECTION YOU'RE HEADING." (emphasis mine)
- David Powlison, Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, Ch. 4 Making All Things New: Restoring Pure Joy to the Sexually Broken, pp. 80, 81
- David Powlison, Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, Ch. 4 Making All Things New: Restoring Pure Joy to the Sexually Broken, pp. 80, 81
Although progress may be slow there must be a work of sanctification! He who began a good work will finish it.
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Amen! He is faithful.
ReplyDeleteI am humbled that my post blessed you.