The process of sanctification is something that has a completion point. It means that we have to undergo that entire process by which we are more and more transformed into mature Christians. And that means that the Christian life is never frozen, never static. God is preparing you to dwell with him forever. He is not finished with you yet. You are not a finished product and God is working on you. And he is going to keep on working on you—if you are really his child—until he gets the job done. That is the first part here.

The second part is—and please pay attention to this one too—he does not do half a job when he does it. Here the idea is the many-sided quality of man, made in the image of God. Every aspect of that character must be brought to fullness. The Greek word the whole lot has to be brought to its development. You see, God made us in his own image—in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. God made you in his image with a mind, and you have got to learn to think the theology of the Bible. When people tell me, I am too old to learn, or it is just too hard for me, I say, I do not think that is the way God looks at it. God made you in his image, and he wants you to put forth the effort—to learn to think his thoughts after him and become a theologian to the extend for which you were created. And if you have a poetical side to you, God wants to develop that in your heart so that you respond with profound feelings to his glorious work.

So one of the reasons why these trials and tribulations come in their many varied forms, is so that you might have all the lot, the whole lot brought more and more through this process, to the development that God wants you to reach as his servant. And God would be neglecting your need if he did not send these trials to you. That means that your trials will not be exactly the same as mine, because your weak point is not the same as mine. But we are all going to experience them and we are all going to receive the ones that we need, and we are going to be brought through that process to that perfection which he has ordained for all of his children.¹

G. I. Williamson