Organic transformation

I like to walk down the street and see the additions people have put on their houses. Some are an unconvincing graft, but others are so well integrated that you can hardly tell where the original leaves off and the new begins.

I was thinking about how God sanctifies his servants. He could just slap a new wing on our fixer-upper of a life, any old slipshod way. In His impatience with our intransigent sin problems, He could simply force-fit a new personality onto us, zapping the troublesome desire, and in effect performing a spiritual lobotomy to make us compliant.

But that wouldn't be very good artistry, and God is an artist. He respects the work of His own hands too much to jury-rig it with low budget solutions to structural problems. He made the planets and then sat back and admired their construction; He said, "This is good." We are God's "workmanship" (the Greek word in Ephesians 2:10 is "poema"). If God was fastidious about the color of the curtains in the Tabernacle, He will also fuss about how your inner rooms are "appointed." The Holy Spirit is the Eternal Interior Designer.

I am aware of two main ways that God has sanctified me. He has sometimes simply removed desires, and that's the way I like best. No one had to tell me I should quit listening to The Rolling Stones "Satisfaction"; over time I just lost interest.

The second way is harder. It's harder because it involves my cooperation. Cooperation is not a dirty word indicating the presence of heresy or obtuseness regarding God's sovereignty; it means being yielded and surrendered to what the Spirit is working in you. I cooperate with the Spirit every time I feel like zinging someone with a sarcastic comment and I refrain.

God tells me, I am going to sanctify you, child, but I will have your cooperation. He wants us fully engaged in the process. When temptation comes He wants to see us fight it, pray against it, die a painful death to it, invoke the promises over it, call to mind Jesus' provisions for it, and experience the taste of victory after it. Come to think of it, maybe the organic nature of God's transformation method goes a long way toward explaining why some prayers are not answered immediately. The Psalmist says, "I waited patiently for the LORD" (Psalm 40:1). I presume that means he prayed a long time before hearing back. It is best to keep in mind that there is nothing we can request of God in prayer that He desires more to give us than our faith-building.

There was a hillbilly who came to the big city for the first time. He and his son Jed entered a skyscraper, and once inside observed a gleaming metal door open by itself. An old woman stepped into the small enclosure behind the door. A few minutes later the same door opened again and a beautiful young woman emerged. The old hillbilly leaned over to his son and said, "Jed, go to the truck and get Ma."

Would that it was always so easy.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.