Better is the end of a thing
“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit” (Eccl. 7:8 KJV).
King Solomon, in his God-given wisdom, made the remarkable statement above—that “better is the end of a thing than the beginning.” People are not mostly remembered by how they started their lives, but by how they ended them. It does not really matter how you started that semester. The way you ended it is more important!
We are a few days away from the end of the 2016. You will agree with Solomon that it really does not matter now how you started the year last January. It is the final state in which you are ending the year that matters the most. You might have made some really great decisions that you held on to for the first few months of the year only to later let them go. The good news is that with God, there is always another opportunity as long as there is breath in our lungs. It is not yet too late. You might have started the year on a rough note, but the “end of a thing” is what matters!
MEDITATE
Think of the many reasons in your own life why the end of what you start is more important than the beginning.
PRAY
Ask the Lord for the wisdom to end the year in an excellent manner, no matter how it started.
ACT ON THE WORD!
What will you do with the verse above? Did you start the year on a terrible footing? Do something, even if it is just one thing today, to end the year in a better manner. Did you start the year gliding in the skies, and now feel like you are ending on the floor? In all that you do, just do one thing to end the year on a better path. Small decisions and actions on God’s Word can change the tide of events in your life!
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Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the Lord which sanctify you. (Leviticus 20:7–8, KJV)
As the Great I AM that I AM, God revealed Himself as the Lord who sanctifies His people in the Old Covenant—Jehovah Mekaddishkem. But this was only a shadow of something greater that was coming in the New Testament.
Jehovah Mekaddishkem is the English transliteration of the Hebrew words for “I am the Lord which sanctify you” ( “mekaddish” = sanctify, “kem” = you). Divine names and titles in the Old Testament often reveal an aspect of God in relation to His people.
There are three keywords that underlie the meaning of sanctification: “wash,” “consecrate,” and “separate.” Sanctification essentially means to make something holy. Sinlessness is a core aspect of holiness, but there is more to holiness than sinlessness. It is the very nature of God. However, when used in reference to us humans, it means to be cleaned from sin, set apart for God, and consecrated to Him.
In the passage above, God tells the people first to sanctify themselves and then reveals He is the One who sanctifies them. Thus, He gives us the two sides of sanctification—the God side and the human side. There’s something God does and something His people do for their sanctification.
This truth was only a shadow in the Old Testament. It is in Christ that we see God fully revealed as Jehovah Mekaddishkem to His people through the sanctifying work on the cross. In speaking to the Corinthians, Paul revealed,
“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11, KJV)
This is Jehovah Mekaddishkem fulfilled in Christ: We were washed and sanctified. Note that these are in past tense, describing something God has already done. The day you received Christ, you received the bath of your life, a heavenly bath by the Spirit of God that removed every stain of sin through the precious blood of Christ. And as you continue to live on earth, the Spirit continues to sanctify you daily.
Following the sanctifying work He has already done in us, He commands us,
“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:” (1 Thessalonians 4:3, KJV)
Now that you are clean, washed, and sanctified, He tells us to put that sanctification to work outwardly. Paul explicit states it is what God wants—His will. He gives us a very specific example of sanctification here: abstain from sexual immorality. Few things defile us, like sexual impurity. But sanctification certainly includes more than abstaining from fornication or adultery. As above, it includes living a consecrated and separated life to God daily in the way we talk, act, think, feel, and handle our bodies.
He is Jehovah Mekaddishkem, the God who has Sanctified you in Christ and continues to sanctify you every day.
Meditate
Is our sanctification completed, ongoing, or both?
Apply the Word
This is the crucial part of this devotional. Until you receive the truth that God has already sanctified you by His Spirit, you will not be empowered to be sanctified practically. Put God’s sanctification power to work in your life daily by faith in the finished work of Christ.
Pray
Ask the Lord to help you in your daily walk of sanctification.
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