As you know, we just came through a presidential election. Every four years as we vote for the the office of the president of the United States, the candidates ask these questions: Are you better off than you were four years ago? Are we safer than we were four years ago? Is our country more prosperous than it was four years ago? Having watched some of the debates in this past election cycle, I heard no mention of the spiritual lives of Americans. Very little was said about the morality of Americans.I believe God is asking a different set of questions. I believe God is concerned about our spiritual growth. He’s concerned about if we are more like Jesus than we were four years ago.If you are a believer, if you have been born again and you are a Christ-follower, God has a very focused work he wants to do in your life. The theological term is the word “sanctification.” God wants to sanctity 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.”A prayer that God will answer - This prayer for their sanctification is a prayer that God will always answer.So what is sanctification?  One man said, “It is everything God does in your life and mine to make sure we turn out right.”Sanctification is an act of separation from that which is sin and evil, and a complete dedication of our lives to God.Paul said it this way in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.”  He began a good work the moment you came to Christ, he continues it day by day, and he will it to completion until the day we see Jesus Christ face to face.Notice that Paul prayed in 1 Thesalonians 5 that God would sanctify us “through and through.” .”  It has the idea of being wholly sanctified so that in the end you will be made complete.  It’s God’s plan that we will be made complete in the end.  We’re not that way now.  Most of us feel fragmented and torn in a thousand directions.  We’re incomplete and under construction in this life.  But God intends that when we finally get to heaven the hammers and saws will be put away and we will stand before the Lord with every part perfectly in place and every aspect of our life made perfect.350 years ago, John Calvin wrote about sanctification.  He said that God intends “the entire renovation of the man.” If you are like me, you know that God is still at work in your life. There are still areas in which we need to grow. There are other areas we need to surrender to God. In so many ways I am not like Christ yet, but that’s the goal. God is using everything in my life, the good and the bad, to conform me to the image of Jesus, and he is in your life too.So, today, let’s surrender all that we are and all we have to the work of God. Let’s not hold back. Let’s give him our bodies, our souls, our minds, our plans, our strength, our attitude, our speech, and all that we are. Let’s allow Him to shape and mold our lives so that we will be like Jesus.I love the end of 1 Thessalonians 5:24…it says, “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”Today’s Challenge: Today when you pray simply to place yourself in God’s hands.  Cooperate with the Master Designer as he shapes you into the image of Jesus.  Say, “Lord, here am I. Make me what you want me to be.”

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