Last night I stayed up late to watch the Ultimate Gift, a Fox Faith film.  What a wonderful message it contained!  Oswald Chamber’s daily devotional, My Utmost for His Highest, touched on the same message this morning.  This morning’s message was that sanctification is the deliberate commitment of oneself to the God of our salvation, and being willing to pay whatever it may cost.

In the movie, a grandson cannot receive an inheritance unless he fulfills the requirements of his grandfather’s will.  These requirements resemble the training process the Holy Spirit puts us through when we fully submit ourselves to His inner workings.  The lure of an inheritance from a very wealthy grandfather caused the rebellious, spoiled grandson to persist in the scheme his grandfather devised. 

When we first accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are often lured by the promise of eternal life.  But then we find that He is for our good in our final outcome if we allow Him to truly become the Lord of our life.  So we submit to His inner workings, which disciplines our spiritual nature.  This requires a sacrifice of the natural way we have done things.  As long as with gratify our natural desires, God cannot be actively involved with us.  Once we are willing to lay our ways of doing things down, He will provide the wells and oases and fulfill all His promises for the natural.  Seek first the kingdom of God and all things are added to us.

In the Ultimate Gift, the grandson must lay down his self-interests to fully receive what the grandfather has for him.  But as he does, he learns to appreciate what the grandfather has given.  The movie is a beautiful picture of the ultimate gift God wishes to give us, a rich inheritance as sons of the Almighty Creator.  (Note we are all sons because there is neither male nor female in the Kingdom of God)