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Christian Network

"Our spiritual growth and emotional maturity occur in opposition to instinct-against the grain of our natural inclinations." Barry Grosskopf

The author of this quote is not a Christian but he succinctly defines the essence of the sanctification process. The battle between the flesh and the spirit that every believer experiences is captured here using non-biblical language. Our sinful tendencies and Grosskopf’s "natural inclinations" are one and the same. He touches on an important point that many Christians have trouble truly accepting, that becoming more Christ-like is never easy and often comes through trial. Growing in maturity is a matter of daily overcoming the powerful fallen human instincts to take the path of least resistance and to avoid pain at all costs.

As long as we think that a life of continuing trial is somehow atypical we set ourselves up for bitterness and despair. The book of Job tells us "man is born to trouble" and this is a truism for all of us for as long as we remain on Earth. All human beings suffer. It is universal. No one is exempt be they believers or non-believers. The difference is that for the child of God suffering is ultimately redemptive and a part of the divine plan for our ongoing sanctification. It is almost a cliché in the Church for people who have gone through such redemptive pain to testify, always after the fact, that they are thankful for that pain because it brought them closer to God. But this is exactly the case.

A few years ago a dear friend of mine went through the horrors of breast cancer. She endured chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She underwent a mastectomy and, in order to limit the disease’s spread, my friend had most of her reproductive system surgically removed. Her life was forever altered by the illness and there is no guarantee that the it will not return and end her life. Shortly after the cancer went into remission I heard her say at a prayer meeting that she would have gone through the whole ordeal again rather than forfeit the spiritual growth that it resulted in. I was absolutely floored by her testimony and suddenly I did not feel as sorry for her anymore. This woman had been through the crucible of great trial and had gained an intimacy with God that she apparently had never thought possible. This was so precious to her that she accepted the suffering it took to attain.

While it is true that my sister in Christ could not avoid the pain that befell her she might have looked at it as nothing but a curse and allowed it to destroy her faith. That this did not happen is mute testimony to her pre-existing faith in her Lord and to the resilience that the Holy Spirit can give us in even the worst-case scenario. I suspect she knew beforehand that trial is a part of this life and trusted God in the darkest moments because of that knowing. The "natural inclination" would be to "curse God and die" but she did neither because their was more in her heart than that inclination.

We cannot grow without adversity. Struggle is part of God’s will for the redemption of a fallen race. We can fight this reality or we can accept and profit by it.