The Beauty Of The Sanctified

If you look at sanctification with terror;

if you shake in trepidation of trials;

if you find yourself shrinking away from the prayer of growing in Christlikeness;

try looking at it's result in the countenance of another.

As you look at their face, try and understand the sweetness in the shadows of the devoted lines of their suffering.

There is a softness to their eyes that reflects the grace of heaven, and a tenderness to their smile that tells of past pain and promises future glory.

Their hands are loose and unused to resistance, for they have practiced so many times the art of letting go. In the bend of their shoulders and the posture of their slowly breaking body you can nearly feel the bygone struggle of self and the subsequent victory of Christ. So often found in the old but sometimes glimpsed in the young, there is nothing more captivating and nothing more beautiful in a human being than the picture of Christ having become more, and they having become less.

Watch the way your fellow saints turn to the Lord, and spot those who's countenances glow with special recognition. For though we are all saved, and are all being saved, there is that which, in God's providence, has progressed farther than another. Pay close attention, dear one, to how the Lord has worked in them a heart that sings not because life is good, but because their God is good, and learn how to do that hereafter. It may not be clear to you now, but the Lord will show you that the beauty you see in them, whether their face be glorious or not, is simply the subtle essence of surrender, hope, and joy, the enviable byproducts of suffering.

I have gazed upon such individuals, and I revel in such sights. For it reminds me that I am not there yet, and gives me something more - it makes me long for the trial.

For the surrender cannot be there if there has been no call to surrender. And lasting hope in something sure will not arise unless you have learned you cannot hope in anything else. And of course you will not have found the spring of everlasting joy unless you have been driven to find it by drought.

So let's wait expectantly, and dare I say eagerly, for the trials in the moments we have left, embracing them and even praying that the Lord would hasten the arrival of each day of sanctification. Pray for that day, beloved, when your countenance is the one shining with soft glory, knowing that you will get there only through the fire. For gold is best when it's purified, and you are a mess worth refining.

Don't be afraid - don't shiver in fear. For not only will the beauty of further completion make everything worth it in the end, your God will be with you through every moment, gently holding your right hand. He's not letting you go, dear follower of Christ. And he's certainly not going to let you stay as you are.

He wants you to be far more beautiful than that.