I recently read The Changed Life by Henry Drummond, an evangelist and professor who explores the concept of sanctification in the Christian life. It’s a short book written in the language of a late 19th-century theologian, but its themes are familiar to this 21st-century Christian.

When God Speaks

It seems when God speaks, He doesn’t stop until we hear Him. This has been the case in my life. Likewise, and what I learned in Drummond’s book recently, God doesn’t stop working in us until we see Him. 

For years, I’ve heard mature Christians discuss the ambiguous “sanctification journey.” This mysterious pilgrimage is something all Christians must walk through. To me, it seemed a lifelong game of Shutes & Ladders in which we could get near the end and then stumble or “backslide” back down again. These games, like the sanctification journey, could seem to last forever.

When I grew older, I viewed it as a pilgrimage through threatening weather, dangerous mountain passages, and self-flagellation until you’re either dead or near-dead. Then you have nothing to look forward to than Heaven anyway.

These childish understandings turned into adult misunderstandings.

I, like many others, have spent my adult years viewing the sanctification process as something largely done by me. To achieve sanctification through Christ, the rules must be kept. You never know when you’re sanctified. Instead, you have the pleasure of knowing you still aren’t sanctified—nor do you deserve it—every time you make the wrong choice.

Mirror, Mirror

It is easy to believe we will never be sanctified when we look only at ourselves through a lens of sin and lack. We do it every day. We look at our home and notice what we’re missing, what we would change, what we’d like better. We look at our health and notice only our symptoms, treating and giving attention to only our ailments. We do it as Christians as well, looking only at the gaping distance between us and God, instead of seeing how Christ unites us. We see how we fall short, but not how we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We see incorrectly, in my opinion, and in Henry Drummond’s.

In The Changed Life, he likens us all to mirrors, constantly reflecting the things we focus on and experience in life to those around us. He emphasizes how the things we “gaze” upon shape our character—love, kindness, or selfishness. We take things in and then they naturally flow out of us and impact others. To truly grow in holiness and goodness, we must focus on Christ, allowing His character to reflect from within us. By keeping our “mirror” turned toward Him, we become vessels of His love and transform the world around us.

Many may mistakenly believe that to turn our mirror toward Christ, we must look only at Him, turning away from ourselves completely. This is a grave error God has been showing me.

“Here I Am”

Looking at the worst of ourselves instead of what God can do within us is not new to the modern Christian. Moses didn’t think he was a good speaker and tried to get out of going to Egypt to free the Israelites (Exodus 4). Isaiah, Simon Peter, and Joshua all went on to do amazing things for God’s glory, but not before objecting due to their personal view of themselves.

In Isaiah 6 we see that the prophet viewed himself as unfit for God’s work, and God sent His angels quickly to correct it. Isaiah began by saying “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!,” but when God sent an angel to cleanse him and then asked, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah answered, “Here I am! Send me” (5, 8).

Isaiah, like any logical person, looked at himself and said, “I’m unworthy.” The truth is God doesn’t call us to use logic. He calls us to use faith.

Who You Are

I can look in a mirror and see my stretch marks, creased face, thinning eyebrows, and graying hair and think I’m too old, too tired, too used up for any good. Instead, I see a body that made three children, a face that sees the sun and smiles and laughs, and hair that is a gift from God. I can see this. I wear my time on earth like a royal robe when I stand in front of a mirror. So, how is it that I and others look in the mirror of our spirits and see only how broken we are? We are broken down by the horrors of evil so that we so easily lose sight of who we truly are because of it. The truth is The Spirit—the Holy Spirit—lives in us, and because He lives within us, we lack nothing.

In this instance, who we are is Who we’re with. The saying “you are the people you surround yourself with” has never been more true. When you look in the mirror and see the King of the Universe standing with you, it can change your day, your OUTLOOK, and your entire life.

Who I am is deeper than the things I’ve done and what the sin of Lucifer has done to me.

I have my daddy’s eyes. I have my mama’s high cheekbones. I have my granny’s thick hands. and I have my King’s steadfast love. I have peace beyond all understanding. I have joy, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness. I have self-control. I have a place at the Father’s table, in the Father’s house.

So do you.

A Prayer

Father in Heaven, Thank You, Father for being King and Abba—Father and Friend.  Knowing You, Holiest of Holies, makes me a better person,  And seeing You when I look at myself makes me see how You made me Fearfully and in Your image. You made me to live like You, love like You,  And to love You. Help me, God, to always look at You first. When I’m feeling Down on myself, show me where You are in my reflection.  Thank You, Father, for loving me beyond all measure,  For sharing good gifts from Heaven,  And for Your Holy Spirit dwelling in my heart daily.  Thank You for listening. Thank You for loving me.  Thank You for Your Son, Jesus.  In His Holy Name, I pray. Amen