Devotional: Rejecting God

So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. 1 Thessalonians 4:8(NASB)

This morning I was copying Scripture into my Journible.  The verse I started with (and ended with) was the verse above.  The part that caught my attention was the fact that he who rejects this rejects God.  What is the "this" that is being talked about here?

To find that out I had to back up in the chapter to verses 3 and 7.

3. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from [d]sexual immorality; 7. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but [h]in sanctification.

Go back and read just the yellow highlighted words.

Sexual purity is one area mentioned here that we need to be sanctified in, but if we look at Galatians 5:5:15-21 there is a whole list of areas we need to be sanctified in. I hope you will take the time to look it up.

There are those who say that since we are free from the law, we can do whatever we please.  We can use profanity, watch and do any number of things that are not beneficial to our sanctification because we are free from the law.  I'm not going to discuss the law here.  That's another topic.

The point is that the will of God is that we be sanctified. If we reject the idea of sanctification, then we are in essence rejecting God.  That's pretty heavy stuff.

Here is an example.  Let's say I'm on Facebook and someone says something inflammatory to me in a comment. My first impulse would be to say something snarky back, yet the Holy Spirit within me is telling me not to do it.  Who am I going to yield to?  Will I yield to my fleshly desires and be snarky or will I yield to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to be nice or not say anything at all?  If I do the former, I have rejected God.

We can apply this principle to all kinds of areas of life.  I have to be honest, I don't always respond to situations and people in the way that I know I should and to be blunt, I have rejected God in those circumstances by ignoring what the Holy Spirit would have me to do.  I hope to do better.  I hope this challenges you as well.  God bless you as you allow His Holy Spirit to sanctify you.