Prevailing Purpose

Both in and out of the counseling room, it is easy to feel results-oriented. No matter how hard we try, never seem to be moving forward in the sanctification process as we would like. We desperately want to be more patient, but someone cuts us off in traffic and we lose ourselves in road rage (again). We interview for a job and are hopeful about the outcome, only to slip back into numbness when we don’t get the position.

And it doesn’t stop there. Not only do we fail despite our best efforts, guilt and shame come creeping back into our minds whispering, “how could you? Don’t you know better?”

Paul understood this struggle, and in Romans 7:15-20 he writes:

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in men, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good i want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

While it’s great to know that even Paul felt this way, what can we do about it? Here, there is both good and bad news, there is very little you can do about it.

In John 15, Jesus uses the imagery of a vineyard. He calls himself the true vine, the Father the vinedresser, and us the branches. Branches can only produce fruit if they are connected to the vine. The vine is its very source of life and unless it is strongly connected, a branch will stop producing fruit, shrivel up, and die. It is only through a branch abiding in the vine that fruit is produced.

Even then, fruit does not appear overnight. Grapevines, for example, can take as long as three years to become mature and produce fruit. If you tracked the daily progress of a grapevine, there would be little difference in the day to day check-ins. But each step forward is one toward maturity, and the same is true for us.

Each time that you are convicted over sin, when you recall scripture to mind, are faithful to pray, or understand something new in scripture, it is evidence that you are being transformed by the Spirit. Those things do not naturally happen to us, and are only brought about by the Lord at work within us.

In his book, Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken, David Powlison speaks of our stages of sanctification. Throughout our lives there are days where we seem to leap from one spiritual milestone to the next. Some where we are maintain a steady jog. Still others where we walk at a leisurely pace. On our worse days, we limp, crawl, drag ourselves along the ground, or simply sit with our faces turned toward God. Each of these stages, is progress. Each a sign that the Spirit is at work.

Sanctification is life-long and slow. If you are in a season of joy and rapid growth, enjoy it. If your season is dark and difficult and it is all you can do to lift your eyes to the Lord, lift them. He is gentle and gracious, a faithful friend and counselor. And whether in this life, or the life to come, he will restore your soul.

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If you are walking through a difficult season and can benefit from biblical counseling, schedule a session with myself or another qualified counselor today.