February 7 — Sanctified and Perfected

Hope for Today: A Daily Devotion from Reasons for Hope*Jesus

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“Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever! Amen.” Matthew 6:13

“And cast their crowns before the throne, saying: You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power!” Revelation 4:10-11

One that is really poor in spirit, though he has practiced the duties of the Christian life ever so long and ever so diligently — always thinks himself to have received but a very little portion of Christ and the work of sanctification hardly to be begun in his soul. So far is he from believing that he has already attained it, that after all his best actions, he counts himself not worthy to be called by the name of a grateful son; he is never pleased with himself. No degree of holiness will satisfy his soul.

He seeks and finds no rest or comfort — but in the infinite mercy of God, and in the pardon of his sins by faith. At the same time, he does not divide Christ — but he receives Him in all His offices and gives himself entirely up to Him without reserve, as his Prophet, Priest, and King — resigning himself entirely into His hands, to be more and more sanctified and perfected. In this state, he is safe indeed — he is prepared for death and has no reason to be anxiously afraid, though earnestly desirous of higher degrees of sanctification. Christ is his life; God is his Father; the Holy Spirit is his Guide; Heaven is his everlasting home; and his daily language should be, “I will trust, and not be afraid.”

Devotion by Karl Heinrich von Bogatzky (1690—1774)