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why does God allow our change to be so slow?

Hi,

I'm wondering why God allows sanctification to be such a slow, incremental process for so many of us? Or put another way, Why does God allow His children to go many years stumbling and sinning?

I know He could make our sanctification rapid as He seems to do to people rarely, because sanctification is His work, done by the faith that He provides.

But for most of us, I think, our sanctification is an almost painfully slow process, and in the meantime, our sins don't glorify Him. So why does He allow it to move along slowly? I know He knows exactly what He's doing and has a reason for everything, but I can't think of what it would be in this case.

I can't think of any place in the bible where this question is dealt with. If there is, can you please point me to it?

What are your thoughts?

Thanks in advance,

Jenny

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Permalink Reply by JB on March 16, 2014 at 3:27pm

I'm wondering why God allows sanctification to be such a slow, incremental process for so many of us? Or put another way, Why does God allow His children to go many years stumbling and sinning?

I don’t see this as God allowing us to go through a long drawn-out process for sanctification, or for that matter, to obtain any of the promises of God.

According to scripture, God has already given to us all things that pertains unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him... 2Pet.1:3-4, So instead of us waiting on God to allow us to grow. He is waiting on us to learn and understand who we are in Him, and to understand that it is us that’s limited by time. So wouldn’t it be fair to say that the more, or faster we learn of the covenant He made with Abraham the faster we can grow in that knowledge? So who then, or what is allowing us to grow? Would it not be our own lack of willingness to put forth the effort to study His Word that we may learn and grow thereby? It is His will; or He wouldn’t have put it in the Word. Because the Word is His will. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds by the Spirit through the Word of God. It would be impossible to renew our minds to the Word of God if we didn’t know the Word.

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on March 16, 2014 at 5:10pm

Thank you JB,

I go into His Word each day these past couple of months, so I will keep doing this and wait and try to be patient, trusting that He will make me grow by it, even when sometimes it doesn't feel like much is happening.

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Permalink Reply by JB on March 16, 2014 at 8:35pm

... trusting that He will make me grow by it, even when sometimes it doesn't feel like much is happening.

Jenny,

The first thing a person must do, is to make sure that you know “from the Word” that it is God’s will for you to grow in knowledge, faith, healing, wisdom etc. Then we go to the Word and we see that this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will: He hears us, now if we know that He hears us then we know we have the petition we asked or desired of Him. 1Jn.5:14, please note, “we have” not going to have, past tense; we have! By faith in God’s Word and His promises. See faith cannot be felt, it is a conviction, or we are “fully persuaded as Abraham was” that what God has promised He is able to perform it. Too many of us are waiting for God to act when we pray, or ask, but the Word says for us to “believe when we pray that we have, or receive it”, So actually He is waiting on us to act on His Word, and not on what we can perceive sensually. In my opinion most of us use the word “faith” much too loosely, faith is a very strong word, because it “faith” is the substance, and the evidence of the things we hope, or prayed for. See, trusting, and hoping is always in expectation; but faith is the substance. …..Will He find faith of earth when He comes? LK.18:8

why does God allow our change to be so slow?

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