We learned four new Hebrew words describing our bad soccer playing. The chiseling, the polishing, the straightening, the loosening and tightening never stop. Every day as we follow on to know the Lord, the raw material of our crooked spirits becomes more pliant, more malleable. Thus the gentle Spirit molds and shapes us continually into the divine image. There's a powerful truth in that rather deep dissertation.
Sanctification is the work of a lifetime.
Becoming a great soccer hero doesn't happen in five minutes. But God takes us patiently, graciously, and relentlessly - over the course of many, many games . . . In the second chapter of Romans, verse four, the Apostle Paul addresses this determination by God to lead us into His own version of perfection, of brilliant soccer play. I like how this reads in the paraphrase version called The Message. God is kind, but He's not soft.