sanctification... and self-pruning...

This year of the Lord's favor... an odd time... for us who believe... walking completely forgiven... washed white as snow... but still having the natural tendency... to stumble... fall... jump... both feet... into the mire...

Forgiveness of grace... amidst the brokenness of sin...

Andrew Murray... he says...

There is no other way of our becoming holy but by becoming partakers of the holiness of Christ. And there is no other way of this taking place than by our personal spiritual union with Him, so that through His Holy Spirit, His holy life flows in us. ...

To illustrate this relation between the measure of the abiding and the measure of sanctification experienced, let us think of the grafting of a tree, that instructive symbol of our union to Jesus. ... if I want a tree wholly made good, I take it when young, and, cutting the stem clean off on the ground, I graft it just where it emerges from the soil. I watch over every bud that the old nature could possibly put forth, until the flow of sap from the old roots into the new stem is so complete, that the old life has, as it were, been entirely conquered and covered by the new. ...

He has grafted the life of Christ on your life. That holy life is mightier than your evil life; under the watchful care of the Husbandman, that new life can keep down the workings of the evil life within you. The evil nature is there, with its unchanged tendency to rise up and show itself. But the new nature is there too --- the living Christ, your sanctification, is there --- and through Him all your powers can be sanctified as they rise into life and be made to bear fruit to the glory of the Father. ...

Look not upon a life of holiness as a strain and an effort, but as the natural outgrowth of the life of Christ within you. And let ever again a quiet, hopeful, cheerful faith hold itself assured that all you need for a holy life will most assuredly be given you out of the holiness of Jesus. Thus will you understand and prove what it is to abide in Christ our sanctification.

Holiness... sanctification... grows by faith... through grace... just like... justification... it cannot be earned... or manufactured... He makes it grow...

And now you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God's special olive tree.

Romans 11:17

NLT

Our contribution is to be on guard... against our own natural... wildness... being willing to... (forgive the expression...) nip it in the bud... a crucifying of self... a taking up of the cross... to kill that which continues to grow from the natural... the fruit that leads to death... we can choose to self-prune... or He will do it for us...

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful ..."

John 15:2

Rest in Him... trust His work... be attune to your natural bent... and be willing to cut it off... so He won't have to...