WHEN DO I “ARRIVE”

I remember a friend in Anchorage AK who had been saved for a little over a year. At that time, I had been saved for about 40 years. He wanted to know when he could expect to arrive and no longer have to struggle with slipping into sin, no longer having to apologize for messing up, finally learn to do all things with God and for God and by God.

I’m afraid that my own testimony was disappointing in that I had certainly not arrived and had never met anyone who had.

I had been raised in a “holiness” church where people became tired of trying to be perfect and just went to the altar and experienced “sanctification” or “a second work of grace.” They then declared themselves to have arrived, to be perfect, and then they stopped growing, stopped taking feedback from others or even from God’s word.

Putting on the front of having arrived and especially convincing ourselves that we have arrived, is very dangerous. It discourages our children and friends who are more honest and see that they have not yet arrived but now think that they should. They rightly believe that it is impossible, so they give up. It discourages friends from being our “iron sharpening iron”. It gives unbelievers a reason to scoff since they can certainly see room for improvement in us.

It makes it hard for Jesus to live out all his intentions for and through us. Paul says, “Not that I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which, also, I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

“Lord, help me to keep growing and, when I fall, to keep getting back up, now and for as long as I live on this planet.”