Training in Righteousness

I really admire people who can pick things up straight away. People who can understand certain principles quickly, and in fact, put them into practice quickly as well. I admire (even envy?) people who seem to do something so effortlessly, people who seem to have it all sorted, all figured out. 

Me, usually I feel like I'm a lumbering slowpoke; I can grasp ideas fairly fast, but when it comes to applying them - it takes me a while. So I tell myself, "ah they're so naturally talented" or maybe "they're predisposed to be so-and-so; I'm not like that."  It's okay to say that, I think, for certain things. But I find myself saying these words when I see someone who appears to be "running the Christian race", as it were, better than I am.  

But the idea of them being "naturally" better than me at being a Christian is, I'm starting to realize, wrong. Such thinking stems from the misperception that sanctification occurs overnight. When Jesus invites us to "take up our cross" daily (Luke 9:23), when Paul tells us to "put to death our old selves" (Colossians 3:5-17), God is telling us that sanctification is a continuous act, it's a habit developed from discipline. Like in any sports training, we will stumble and fall sometimes. There'll be days when we miss the mark. A whole lot of days, in fact. But we still keep running, and we still keep pressing on towards the goal. The failures in my training won't mean I'm not an athlete anymore, but they remind me to get up the next morning and to keep going forward.

When I tell myself that such-and-such a Christian is better at xyz, and I can never hope to be like that, I'm adopting a defeatist attitude. And that very attitude displays a lack of trust in God. Because underlying it is the notion that our Christian journey is dependent on my own motivation, personality, or what-you-may. When in fact, it's about relying on God's strength, it's about remembering Jesus's work on the cross - it is remembering these truths that I am spurred on. 

The moments I am inclined to feel that I can't strain towards holiness, are also the moments I forget that God is faithful, and God has promised us the Holy Spirit, our helper and counsellor aiding us in this battle. Instead, there is the tendency to fall into the trap of thinking that because I'm not living up to God's standards, the only conclusion must that the Holy Spirit is not working in me. But to think that would be to forget that God gives the Holy Spirit to His children who ask Him! (Luke 11:13)

I believe and trust in the God of the Bible. And when he says that He is faithful (Exodus 34:6; 1 Cor 1:9), He means it. So next time, when I see a brother- or sister-in-Christ who is growing in sanctification, I'm going to train myself not to think "wow, if only I could be like that", but to think "wow, that's the amazing power of God's work! It'll mean hard work for me, but by God's grace, I can aspire to be like that too!"