Dedicated to God

As Christians, we are told the Holy Spirit works to sanctify us (1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Thess. 2:13). Seldom do we use the word "sanctify" when describing the work of the Spirit in our lives, so what does it mean? The definition is to “make holy,” which means to “make dedicated,” dedicated to God.  These may seem like new words, so how do we understand this concept? When we are dedicated to a cause or a person, that subject becomes an integral part of our thoughts and actions. While we may accept these words, what does the mental picture really look like? As Christians, we accepted Jesus as our savior and now the Holy Spirit lives within us. What more do we need for satisfying God; how do we become sanctified, dedicated to God? Bluntly, we need to think about and adopt the practices of God or Jesus. One good way to describe how we become sanctified is shared by Paul, “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” - Rom. 8:13 (ESV). The point is that God wants each of us to develop His character as we live our lives. This process of change is described as the process of sanctification. Each of us is on a unique individual spiritual journey, we are being molded to be holy, dedicated to God's principles. We are unique because each of us had a different history when we accepted Jesus. It is an individual journey, because each person has different challenges and talents. It is a journey to adopt spiritual viewpoints throughout life on earth. When we attempt to satisfy our fleshly desires above our focus on Godly opinions and actions, we display that we have yet more to learn. God wants us to be His representatives in the world and display His attributes. While this sounds challenging, dependence on guidance by the Holy Spirit can make this happen. We will never achieve perfection, and we each walk this spiritual journey at different rates depending on the obstacles we encounter and overcome. The individual challenge determines how the Holy Spirit helps; details of this help may be different for various people or different for the same person as needed.