American Reformation Church Prayer Journal 28
ARC Prayer Meeting
There are three aspects to God’s salvation. First is justification. This is a legal jurisprudence term. It allows the supreme Judge of the universe to bring down his righteous gavel and declare guilty sinners like us who repent and put our faith in Christ to be exonerated based upon the finished and atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The second aspect of God’s salvation is known as sanctification. This is the process whereby a believer undergoes the transformative process empowered by God’s Word and Spirit to become conformed into the image of Christ. We all have to reach the place like John the Baptist, where Christ must increase and we must decrease (John 3:30). More like Jesus and less like us is the way of sanctification.
The third aspect of God’s salvation is glorification. 1 John 3:2 states, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” The second believers see Christ in glory; we are transformed to be like Him for all eternity. This mortality must put on immortality. Our corruption must take on incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:53).
One of the godly goals of sanctification is the endeavor by all believers to become overcomers. In the book of Revelation alone, there is a major emphasis by God to the early church to overcome. There were blessings to obtain if achieved and disciplinary judgments if the church failed. Obviously, overcoming is an essential element to experience victory in Jesus.
Overcoming reveals there are issues, problems, obstacles, and sins that must be addressed by us all and through the grace, truth, and power of God, we emerge triumphant. This is where prayer comes in as an important ally in the necessary pursuit of being an overcoming Christian.
If you recall the agony in the garden of Gethsemane endured by our Lord as He wrestled with the bitter cup that He must drink to please His Father and secure our salvation, He gave this admonishment to His disciples, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).
As in the book of Revelation, our Lord is challenging His closest men to overcome. Unfortunately, when He needed them the most, they failed Him in grand fashion. I don’t know about you, but it gives me hope to know the disciples are a lot like us. The point, however, is how important was it to watch and prayer when it came to dealing with temptation and God’s desire for each and every one of us that calls upon His name in love and truth to live an overcoming life for His glory and our benefit.
