The beauty of growth and sanctification

“Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was.”  
- John Newton

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."   - Philippians 3:12-14

"...Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ..."   
- Philippians 1:6

“Take a fresh draught of perspective, self.

See how the framework is grand.

Remember the times when you could have let go,

When all seemed to fail like the seeds you had sown,

But your Father was holding your hand.

Remember the days when invisible words

Flew the darkness away, and you wept.

And each salted glass tear was a mountain of fear

Leaving and melting and now there appears

A glimpse of the Lord’s promise, kept.

Don’t drown in shed tears for the past you knew

It’s different now that you look back.

The colors are marching through darkness you felt.

But each one is brighter for each sorrow dealt,

And their richness finds nothing to lack.”

.

- Grace Einkauf

 

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."   
- 2 Corinthians 5:17

"...Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."    - Ephesians 4:13-16

  "Yet the righteous will hold to his way,

And he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger."
- Job 17:9

 

"But the path of the just is like the shining sun,

That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day."
- Proverbs 4:18

Though I am far -oh, so far!- from what I ought to be, so far from what I want to be, by the grace of God I can truly say, "I am not who I once was!"

Risa @};-