God's Sanctifying Work In My Life

I have been growing SO MUCH lately. My class at Urbana Theological Seminary this semester is Old Testament Survey. I have been reading through much of the OT and the teacher is great! God is revealing more and more of Himself to me. I have always been "Christ-centered" in my theology, and I still am. But through my recent growth, God has revealed Himself to me in new ways other than just through Christ (of course realizing that the revelation of God IS in Jesus Christ, but I mean that He has shown Himself to be more than I had previously known). Of course the OT is all about the coming Messiah, but it's also more than that. It's also about a gracious God who is faithful to His covenant and merciful to His people, ultimately so that they be holy as He is holy so that God can be known among the nations! Through this He has shown me my great sinfulness and His great holiness. As God continues to reveal to me more and more of His holiness and more and more of my sinfulness, I see the gap between myself and God grow futher and further away. In that, I am able to see His grace more and more, as He has bridged that gap in Jesus Christ. What a gracious God!!!

I also read an essay on Matthew Henry by Ligon Duncan about Matthew Henry's theology on prayer. It was great! It showed me my shallowness in my prayer life and the need to focus more on God in whole, character, attributes and all that entails Him. Through this recent "revelation", I have seen my own selfishness in my prayer life and I have begun to focus on the person of God...all three Persons. Another part of my prayer life that has been lacking is my confession of sin. God has prompted me to bring my sin before His Throne of Grace. When these two elements come together in prayer, that gap between us and God that I mentioned earlier, grows in my perspective and I understand His grace more and more. Therefore, in understanding and appreciating His grace more, I find Him more and more worthy of my praise and adoration! Not that He was ever less worthy, but I have personally come to know His worth more. After all this during prayer, I bring my personal petitions and petitions for others to Him. At this point, they no longer become selfish, but purposeful to His glory. It changes my perspective on how I pray for myself and others. These petitions become more Christ-centered and God-glorifying.

I have also grown in many other ways lately. I have been studying eschatology and my theology in that doctrine has grown. God has shown me so much in the Bible about my pride and my need to put Him first. One way that has happend is that I was directed to a website: http://www.iamsecond.com/ . It's a great website. Just a bunch of testimonies from famous people who are Christians and how God has made Himself first in their lives. However, I disagree that we should be second. We should be like...5,827,349,283,743rd place. Because we are to live to please others before ourselves after we please God and we also please God by pleasing others.

I hope this testimony of God's wonderful sanctifying work in my life is an encouragement for you to become closer to Him. I must mention that if you notice, all the growth in my life is initiated by God, NOT ME! But I cannot ignore the personal responsibility I have to yearn after Him and desire Him with all of my soul, heart and mind. RUN after Him! He will feed your soul! He will grow your mind! He will swell your heart with affection for Him! He will give you a love and appreciation of Him and His worth in Jesus Christ!

I cannot begin to mention all the ways that God has dealt with my sin through this time of great growth. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." I believe He is talking about eternal rest, but the truth applies that He certainly handles our burdens as we live this life. GOD IS AFTER YOUR HEART! I remember when I was living deep in my sin and though the Spirit was convicting me, I was ignoring Him. Then one night after drinking, I came home while living at my parents house. I saw a single white sheet of paper on the counter. It was from my Dad and it said in all cap's, "MARK, GOD WANTS YOU!"
I will never forget the impact that had on my life. God used my Dad to begin a process of saving me from my sinful ways. To think that He has brought me from that state to become an ambassador of His gospel for Jesus Christ, staggers my mind! What a gracious God! What a merciful God! What a loving God! What a faithful God! What a forgiving God! What a glorious God! What a holy God He is!