Sanctification

Enlarge My Heart

Jesus Is Lord, Sanctification, Trusting God

“I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!” (Psalm 119:32 ESV)

I am ailed daily. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I am prone to selfish gain. My heart is notorious for wandering in its never-ending me-centered desires. I idolize “my” time, though none of the time I experience is actually mine to idolize. I hinder peace in my home when I attempt to control schedules and space. I want things to be how I want them and I don’t want to evaluate my motives or consider the desires of others. My flesh is built toward hogging glory that was never mine to claim. I am daily plagued with deeming others’ needs as inconvenient. I can find myself lavishing in thoughts of wanting more. I am ailed with a heart and mind that lives in discontent. I battle with succumbing to lazy days and gluttonous ways. I can persuasively justify why self-control in certain areas is too difficult.

It is so easy to live this way. It is what my flesh craves and delights in.

But.

When the Lord of Lord’s mercifully made Himself known to me, awakened me to the truth of my state of sin, revealed to me my need for a Savior, and drew me to faith and repentance—A war began in my life.

A commitment to extinguish the follies of my flesh began.

I praise my Holy God for this war.

This war rages. Daily.

As it should in you if you are a fellow follower of Jesus Christ.

This war is the mark of a true Believer. This war’s purpose is to make us more into the image of our wonderful Savior, Jesus. This war is our beautiful journey of sanctification that we get to go on with the Holy Spirit. It’s by the Spirit’s work that we are equipped, enabled, and eager to be made more holy with each forsaking of the flesh we encounter.

This war on the flesh for the Believer should be made much of, but if we’re honest it has been made much less of in today’s Christian culture.

It’s not cool to restrict our flesh.

Restrict it anyway.

It’s not popular to walk under self-control.

Walk under it anyway.

You won’t gain millions of followers by pursuing holiness.

Pursue it anyway.

All of the ailments of our flesh and woes of our days are understood by the authors of the Psalms.

I visit this book often because often my flesh rears for a fight against my Spirit. I am anguished when spiritual things feel too hard. And they are hard. The Psalms remind me that many brothers and sisters in Christ before me have been plagued with these same wrestling’s with the flesh as they fight the temptation of sordid sin.

Psalm 119 is a favorite of mine to visit and camp at for long periods of time. This Psalm observes and celebrates the beautiful gift of God’s law and His wonderful covenant with His people.

The Psalmist starts by penning about the one who is blessed.

“Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who seek his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently,” (Psalm 119:1-4 ESV).

The law of the Lord is a blessing to His people, not a burden that is kept only satisfying religiosities. The Psalmist writes with wisdom as he references Moses’ writings in the second verse. “But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul,” (Deuteronomy 4:29 ESV).

What a gift the Lord has given us by bestowing a yearning for seeking Him when He granted us faith in Him. Seek Him.

He goes on to write about the way to purity.

“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I may not sin against you. Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!” (Psalm 119:9-12 ESV)

Purity feels far away in our world. It should be something to cherish, but it is easily thrown away and trampled on. Purity of the mind, heart, and body is beautiful, yet impossible to put on perfectly in this clothing of flesh we must remain adorned in until our time in glory. Though impossible to perfect, purity is pursued by guarding our eyes, minds, and hearts with God’s Word. We must read, know, and apply God’s Word for this to be true in our own lives. We won’t happen upon purity; we must pursue it through seeking the Lord.

“Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times,” (Psalm 119:17-20 ESV).

I’d be lying if I said that my soul is consumed with longing for God’s rules at all times. I yearn for God’s rules at most times, but not at all times. Oh, the joy that awaits us in heaven as we will worship our Lord with no hinderances of sin and distractions of our flesh!

The Psalmist is writing with zeal, urging his readers to yearn for God. To seek His commandments. To love His Word. To surrender to His ways.

“Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me, I cling to your testimonies, O LORD; let me not be put to shame! I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!” (Psalm 119:29-32 ESV).

The Psalmist knows that he cannot put false ways away from himself, he cannot cling to the Lord’s testimonies alone, and he cannot run in the way that the Lord commands apart from the Lord enlarging his heart. He knows His spiritual successes are not of his own doing but only comes from the Lord increasing his faith and expanding his ability to understand and abide in God’s Truth.

Lord, enlarge my heart!

I pray the cry of your life is for the Lord to enlarge your heart to the things of Him.

When we are ailed physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—Lord enlarge our hearts toward You. When we are prone to selfish gain, a wandering heart, and me-centered desires— Lord enlarge our hearts toward You. When we idolize time, hinder peace, attempt to control, and are inconsiderate to the desires of others—Lord enlarge our hearts toward You. When we glory-hog, don’t want to be bothered by the needs of others, battle discontentment, and desire an easy life that results in laziness and gluttony—Lord enlarge our hearts toward YOU.

The Psalmist writes a few verses later, one of my favorite verses in Psalm 119.

“Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways,” (Psalm 119:37 ESV).

Everything in life that does not honor the Lord or reflect our delight in Him is worthless.

Lord, enlarge our hearts as You guard us and turn our eyes away from looking at all of the worthless, time-stealing, brain-rotting, sin-enhancing things of this world… Give us life, everlasting, in Your ways that are beautiful, becoming, and boundless.

I Trust my God, I Trust my God, I Trust my God

Ardently His,

Jess Dennis

Dear Young Sister’s-In-Christ

Jesus Is Lord, Sanctification, Trusting God

This last week was a beautiful one. I have been Bonus-Mom for nearly five years. I met my bonus daughter on her 13th birthday and last week she graduated from high school. This milestone is one that many keep-sake in their memories for life. It is the right of passage into adulthood. It solidifies the value of the many years of schedules, bells, and homework. Hard work, dedication, and perseverance will always be worth it.

But as the graduation festivities carried on, my soul was burdened with many realizations.

Did I do enough with the time the Lord gave me to help train, guide, and point her to Christ as her Savior? Was the Gospel lived out before her eyes in our home? Does she know Christ deeply and personally? Does she love God’s Word?

These are the things that my mind kept going back to. If you read my last blog about the forever things—these are the forever things.

Graduating kindergarten, high school, and college are noteworthy accomplishments. Setting academic and sports goals has a purpose and promotes character and discipline. Receiving recognition and honor for your hard work is gratifying. But these are not the forever things.

My mind has wrestled that this sweet season is coming to an end. I’m asking the Lord for much grace as we enter a new season with her spreading her wings from this nest. As she soars, I think I’ll want these years back.

If you’re a mom in a similar season, I pray you know you’re not alone.

My prayer is for her and all of my young sister’s-in-Christ to remember the forever things… the things that matter to our eternal life with Christ.

If I could write my young sister’s-in-Christ a letter—it would go something like this…

Dear Young Sister’s-in-Christ,

You may not realize it right at this moment, but your young life will soon experience many uncharted territories. The pressure of peers doesn’t end in the halls of high school. Temptations will be lurking close by as you venture into this next chapter. The world will tell you lies that compromising your conduct, your dress code, and your purity are not a big deal. Do not fall for these lies. The world will attempt to redefine what it means to love and be loved. Do not entertain this redefinition of love. In a world that declares purity, prudence, and holiness as old and outdated, I pray you stand strong in these godly virtues. In a world where “truth” lives in the grey and people carry multiple “truths” I encourage you to know and love THE Truth—God’s Holy Word.

If you are blessed to have parents who shared the Gospel with you and lived it out daily, I pray that their example has shown you the power of Christ and the beauty of being sanctified through this life, daily.

I pray you set yourself apart from the ways of the world quickly and joyfully as you enter your adult years. This task is easy to say, but much more difficult to do. I pray the Holy Spirit equips you to do this as your circles of influence grow. I pray if mockery stems from this setting apart, that you joyfully turn the other cheek and walk as the Lord has instructed us to in His Word.

I pray the Lord keeps you close and repentance quickly follows any sin. I pray you hallow the Lord’s Name, His Word, and His perfect ways. I pray the Lord continues to reveal His sovereignty in your life and in the gift of your salvation.

We live in a culture that recommends self-care living over biblical self-sacrifice and serving. As Daughters of Christ, we must not fall into this me-centered trap that endorses so much worth on our exterior but neglects the soul and mind. I encourage you to reject the boss-babe culture and be a woman of the Word.

God’s Word is life-giving and life-sustaining, I pray you never forget this. I pray you love His law and His Word. I pray you crave His Word as if it were a feast that you look forward to daily and gain the most nutrients from.

I pray you seek God with your whole heart as His Word commands.

“Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,” (Psalm 119:2 ESV)

“But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul,” (Deuteronomy 4:29 ESV)

“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near,” (Isaiah 55:6 ESV).

I pray you regard knowing God as the most significant blessing of your life.

“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law,” (Psalm 119:18 ESV)

“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,” (John 17:3 ESV)

“I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart,” (Jeremiah 24:7 ESV)

I pray you are transformed by the ardent, never-ceasing, boundless love of God through Christ Jesus.

“…In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the Beloved,” (Ephesians 1:4-6 ESV)

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 8:38-39 ESV)

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” (1 John 4:10 ESV)

I pray you aim to grow in your trust relationship with the Lord all the days of your life.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths,” (Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV)

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD God is an everlasting rock,” (Isaiah 26:3-4 ESV)

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God,” (Psalm 20:7 ESV)

I pray you have a passion for studying scripture, obeying scripture, praying, worshiping with your whole life, serving others, and sharing the Gospel—all motivated by a desire to know God, love God, share God, enjoy God, and glorify God. Spiritual disciplines are essential for the Believer and should be rooted in a deep love for Christ. When we consistently feed ourselves the Truth of scriptures, we are guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Because of this, when our lives experience adverse circumstances, we know God’s overwhelming grace will sustain us. Because we know His Word, we know He is sovereign and He is good. Always.

When the Lord awakened us to the truth about our sinful state and our desperate need for a Savior—Jesus Christ—and drew us to faith and repentance— it transformed us forever. With this most epic, glorious, death-to-life-transformation, our perspective of life and time should be radically altered to reflect eternity. In a world that accolades boss babes and selfish living, we should be humbled at the reality of what is at stake for all…life or death…for eternity. With this knowledge it should grow our joy in the Lord and increase our passion to share the Gospel with zeal and compassion.

I pray your heart’s cry will forever be that of the Psalmist:

“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word,” (Psalm 119:15-16 ESV).

Ardently His,

Jess Dennis

The Forever Things

Jesus Is Lord, Sanctification

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever,” Isaiah 40:8

Several months ago, while washing dishes, I noticed a small hairline crack in the granite countertop behind my kitchen faucet. It alarmed me. Having been built in 2019, my house is still new in my mind. As the months passed, the crack spread and deepened. Recently, my husband and I purchased a granite repair kit and worked together to fill and paint over the very noticeable crack.

As we worked, I kept thinking about the fact that nothing remains the same. Obviously, I know this. But my mind was pondering about so many things. My car, which was also purchased in 2019, is having issues. The exterior of our house needs scrubbing. The once beautiful lawn has been invaded with stickers. The trampoline is rusting. My 37-year-old hair is changing and sprouting tiny greys. My lower back feels like it’s 60. Slight wrinkles are developing near my eyes. We build things with our own hands, and our work will inevitably face wilt or decay. Our minds absorb, learn, and then flesh out what we’ve learned, then our work is forgotten.

You get the point because you have your own list culminating in your mind.

My list is soft, normal, and definitely first-world problems. I have no room for complaints, yet I complain.

Things in this life fade. We wither away with age.

It’s actually pretty depressing to think about. I can see where a perspective of hopelessness could overtake one’s mind.

But, as Christ followers, a hopeless perspective shouldn’t be our permanent residence.

Because we know that our hope is not bound in the work of our hands, the longevity of our homes and vehicles, or our own young and healthy bodies.

Life would be hopeless if those are the things we are placing our hope in. Because they will never last nor will they satisfy us for long.

Nothing in this world lasts forever.

The only reasonable response would be for us to hope in something not bound to this world.

The only thing not bound to this world is THE Creator of this world. Our holy and good God.

In Isaiah chapter 40, God is comforting His people that have been in exile. Part of God’s perfect comforting is His declarative promise that only He can be utterly and completely trusted. Because He is the only true and trusted One, His words are infallible and remain forever as infallible and cannot decay or be void of truth.

“The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever,” (Isaiah 40:7-8 ESV).

I want the forever things.

I want my hope to remain on the only thing that will stand forever…The Word of our God.

Isaiah 55:10-11 says,

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Our purposes go unaccomplished often and are filled with emptiness that evoke hopelessness apart from God. As Believers our hope should be intertwined in the character and promises of God, not that of our own human motives and accomplishments. It should thrill us to serve a God Who is unchanged by His changing world corrupted by the sin of man.

I do not like change. I enjoy and thrive in order, schedules, and well-made and kept plans. This dislike of change has become a big area of sanctification for me over the last decade. What a gift this specific area of sanctification has been in growing me closer to my Holy and good God. He has brought to the center of my heart and my perspective His sovereignty and His perfect reign as my life has experienced seasons of intense changes.

He has made it a solid truth in my soul and spirit that I cannot look to anything in this world to place my faith or hope in or seek comfort from as I attempt to avoid or surrender to the many changes of life.

There have been seasons that many things in this world have given me false securities of hope and comfort. Like the list above—Having a beautiful home, a reliable vehicle, a well-paying job, a healthy body, a mind that thinks and creates, hands that accomplish work, pretty things, a husband, wonderful children, church, ministry, goals, past accomplishments and the pursuit of future ones. None of these things are inherently wrong. But they all have one thing in common… They will not last forever.

Decay, wilt, deterioration, inevitable change, age, and death will happen. All things in this world will succumb to an unavoidable end. They will not last forever, ever.

I want the forever things.

If the Word of God is the forever thing, then everything in His Word should be worth our attention and seeking. We should feed on His Word like it were food, because it is. Jesus says this in His human hunger as He was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness forty days and forty nights.

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God,” (Matthew 4:4 ESV).

The forever things are found in God’s Word.

The forever things are bound up in seeking God. We cannot truly seek the One True God without seeking Him first and foremost in His Holy Word.

The forever things are bound up in knowing God. We cannot truly know the God of the Bible without knowing His beautiful, all-powerful, life-giving, Holy Word.

The forever things are bound up in loving God. We know from His Word that we only love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). We know as Believer’s, His ardent love for us is a gift rooted in His wonderful mercy that will always be undeserved on our part.

The forever things are bound up in trusting God. When God has drawn us to faith and repentance, we are made justified before Him through the ordained, perfect work of His Son, Jesus, at the Cross of Calvary. We are made alive and a new creation in Christ Jesus! (Ephesians 2:1-10). How could we not find Him trustworthy in all matters of our life? We should trust unwaveringly, but we don’t. But we get to spend our earthly lives practicing our trust through continually seeking and knowing more of who God is through His Word. We get to study how much He loves us. Because He is faithful, He will grow our trust in Him.

The forever things are what our holy and good God says are essential and imperative for His children: picking up our cross, and following Him (Matthew 16:24-28), keeping His commandments (John 14:15-17), abiding in Him (John 15:4-5), loving one another as He has loved us (John 15:12-13), bearing fruit that abides (John 15:16), loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44), going and making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19), being holy for He is holy (1 Peter 1:13-16), rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, giving thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

This list is inexhaustive, but it’s a good start for us to submerge our thoughts and affections for the forever things.

I pray you have an urgency rooted in God’s grace to be a continual student of His scriptures. I pray you love the wisdom that consumes His Word. I pray you love His commands and boundaries laid out for His children. I pray you humbly recognize His sovereignty on display from eternity past, present, and eternity future. I pray you are stirred to submit under His wonderful and perfect authority in all things, knowing that He is the only One that is immutable and all-sufficient.

The grass withers, as we all will do in this life. The flower fades, as do all things in this life.

I pray you joyfully seek the forever things… the life-giving, sustaining, unfading, imperishable, permanent, immutable, all-sufficient, infallible, inherent Word of God.  

“All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work,” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV),  

I Trust my God, I Trust my God, I Trust my God

Ardently His,
Jess