Growing Into Our Sainthood
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”—Rom. 8:5, 6
On any given day, these are the “unsaintly” thoughts that usually run through my head.
You ought to be more patient with Anah. After all, she has a disability! You cannot expect her to think like you do. You should just put up with all her routines that seem so useless to you. You shouldn’t blow up when she keeps pulling the threads out of her clothing, or rolls out too much toilet paper, or squeeze out too much toothpaste—again. You expect too much from her.
Blah blah blah.
These voices criticize and accuse me all day because I face it every day. I feel defeated from the start of the day. As I listen to these voices—which aren’t completely false—they slowly begin to define who I am. Instead of living confidently as a saint, I am beaten down by the name I have given myself:
Failure.
How Not to Deal With Our Failures as Saints
It’s easy to believe these things because they do seem to be true. Every failure just adds more proof and confirms our suspicions. Over time, we come to accept this identity. It’s too hard to fight it.
Another way to deal with it is to swing to the other extreme and try something different. Enough is enough! If I work harder, do better, I can change this! We roll up our sleeves, and get to work.
In the end, neither of these work. Neither of these help us to grow up and grow into our true identity as saints.
I appreciate what Melissa Kruger observes in her book, Identity Theft. She writes:
“Every false identity we adopt is rooted in some level of truth. The cleverest lies wrap falsehood with honesty. It’s easy to succumb to discouragement and defeat.”
It’s true: We will and do fail. But the false conclusion is this: Your failures define who you are.
So how do we live confidently as saints despite our recurring failures?
Understand this is a struggle of all believers.
Even the apostle Paul, godly man that he was, dealt with this very thing! Romans 7: 15 and 19 describes this struggle precisely: “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing.”
Exactly!
When we begin to realize that this is the situation for every single believer on this side of the cross, that is a huge load off our shoulders.
It’s not just you. We all fail to live a saintly life.
Identify the godless solutions you use.
Having the problem is not the problem. What’s the bigger problem is trying to take care of it through our own means.
Succumbing to the lie instead of courageously living the truth.
Self-condemnation, in the hopes of shaming yourself to action.
Pulling myself up by my bootstraps, determined to fix myself.
The list could go on.
The truth is, none of these are going to help us become more godly. They may have the appearance of godliness, but it is a fake humility, a fake godliness because it puts the responsibility of change entirely on yourself.
What is your solution of choice?
Recognize that the Gospel both makes us a saint and empowers us to live like one.
Here’s the truth: The Gospel has made me a saint—even if I do not act like one. My sinful thoughts and actions do not change that status.
Imagine with me a little boy wearing the shoulder pads of a professional football player. They clearly don’t fit. But he sure likes to try them on for size. He imagines wearing them one day himself.
In the meantime, he tosses the football with his dad. He plays flag football with his friends at recess. He gets on the high school team.
As he applies himself to practice, his muscles grow strong. His skills develop. Little by little, with time and effort, he will fill in what once seemed too big for him.
The shoulder pads haven’t changed. But he has. And one day, what once was ill-fitting fits perfectly.
The boy cannot make himself grow muscles or grow tall. He is powerless to do so. But by making the effort to work out, to develop and refine his skills, he cooperates in the growth process.
So it is with our identity as saint. We are saints, whether we fit the description or not.
We cannot make ourselves grow. But with time, with practice, God will see to it that our efforts help us move towards that identity. He uses our efforts to produce the growth we look for.
This is hard work because we are working against what is natural, convenient, comfortable.
The gospel helps us get started by setting us in the right direction. Instead of being separated from God, our relationship to the Father is restored through Christ. But it doesn’t stop there.
The gospel also empowers us to push against the current. The indwelling Holy Spirit helps us make those choices towards godliness.
For our part, we willingly enter the battle. We resist. We exert effort to do that which is difficult.
But we never do this alone. It is not all up to me. It will take 100% of my effort with 100% of His.
And even if we fail, He is ready to forgive. Like a loving Father, He sets us on our feet and helps us try again.
Take your eyes off yourself and focus them on God through confession and repentance.
Being a saint doesn’t mean we stop needing to seek God’s forgiveness. On the contrary, it means we are far more aware of the sins that still remain in our lives—which means we actually should be confessing and repenting even more! Just as we need to ask the Lord to give us our daily bread, we need to ask Him to forgive us our daily sins.
Whenever we fail to live like a saint, it is a good bet that it is because we have taken our eyes off God, taken our eyes off loving our neighbor and shifted them to ourselves—our preferences, our desires, our comfort, our convenience. We let the love of self trump the two greatest commandments to love God and love others.
Confession and repentance is our way to admit that to Him and get back on track.
In my case, I constantly need to confess my prideful stance before God and Anah that makes me try to push her into my mold. I have assumed I know what is best for her and impatiently and harshly try to get her to do things my way instead of showing compassion with her disability.
Agreeing with God that we are wrong may be the hardest part, but essential. But the best way to start growing up into His character is to admit where I have fallen short before Him. When I do, Satan has no other grounds to condemn me as those sins are then covered by the blood of Christ.
Ask God to help you see the opportunities He gives you in your situation or hardship.
All the challenges in our lives are the moments God uses to sanctify us. He doesn’t just dump holiness on us as we passively sit there.
As I already mentioned, growing into our identity as saint will take our 100% effort, by the power of the Holy Spirit, exercised over time.
Therefore, my struggles with Anah are the precise moments where God can make me more like a saint.
It’s not through reading a book. It’s not from listening to how others did it.
It’s through accepting the opportunity God lays before me right at this moment and asking Him to give me the power and help I need to live as Christ would in this situation.
This means entering into the struggle with Anah’s daily care, especially on weekends. Instead of dreading it, I can look at them as His workshop for growing into my identity as a saint.
Every task is an opportunity to learn the humility of Christ as I stoop to care for her.
Every time is an opportunity to exercise patience as I wait for her.
Every exasperating moment is an opportunity to step into her shoes and grow in compassion.
Instead of focusing on Anah, I can focus on the opportunities I have to practice being a saint, day in and day out. As I learn to humbly step into these opportunities, He will use them to refine and shape me more and more into becoming the person Christ has already made me to be.
Conclusion
Sainthood is both a new relationship status with God as well as a process. Despite the struggle, despite the failures, He can help us get there.
For our part, hold on to this hope. Don’t give up!
One more piece of encouragement from Melissa Kruger:
“Living as a saint who struggles with sin is profoundly different from living as a sinner who’s desperately trying to be a saint.”
All saints will struggle with sin. In fact, trying to live as if you didn’t actually is not saintly!
Instead, of condemning yourself for it, admit it. Again. Recommit yourself to Him. Again.
Then by the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in us, that empowers us to grow in our sainthood, try again.
And like a proud Father, He will cheer us on as we grow into the identity He has destined for us.
