SCRIPTURE TEXT: I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy …… – Leviticus 11:44 (NIV)
MESSAGE
Be Holy, because I am Holy, were the words that God gave the children of Israel when He by His own wisdom called them and set them apart for himself (Lev. 11: 45). In 1 Peter 1:16, Peter reminds believers that they are to move away from the lives they lived before and live holy lives because of the nature of the one who has called them.
God is holy, and what is true of God must be true of those who are God’s people. Holiness carries the thought of being totally devoted to God. We are to be set apart and different, not blending in with the crowd. We are not to be different just for the sake of being different. Remember what Jesus said about the Pharisees and their brands of holiness’………. they do not practice what they preach…. Everything they do is done for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honour…. And the most important seats in synagogues…-Matt. 23:1-6. What should make us different are God’s qualities in our lives – His qualities of love, mercy, goodness, justice, fairness peace, kindness etc (see Galatians 5: 22-23). Our focus and priorities must be His, in direct contrast with what we used to be when we had not committed our lives to Him.
We cannot become holy on our own; God has therefore given us His Holy Spirit to help us to obey Him and to give us power to overcome sin. This is what is meant by sanctification; it expresses the process of becoming holy daily because of God’s work in us. Being holy is not an option for Christian because without holiness no one can see the Lord. – Heb. 12:14.
God has given us His promises and through those promises we have to recognize that God has a claim on our lives. –Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God – 2 Cor. 7:1. Our bodies are His temple and so we must continually form the habit of letting the light of God shine on it. We have to transform our natural lives into the kind of spiritual lives that live in obedience to God, not out of compulsion or the fear of punishment but out of love for Him who loved us. Am I perfecting this type of holiness in the fear of God? Is God getting His way with me, and are other people beginning to see God in my life more and more? Be serious with God and leave the rest gaily alone. Put God first literally.
Continually reiterate to yourself what the purpose of your life is. The destined end of man is not happiness, nor health, but holiness. The one thing that matters is whether a man will accept the God who will make him holy. At all costs, a man must be rightly related to God.
Never tolerate through sympathy with yourself or with others anything that is not in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means unsullied walking with the feet, unsullied talking with the tongue, and unsullied thinking with the mind – every detail of the life under the scrutiny of God. Holiness is not only what God gives me, but also I manifest that which God has given me.
PRAYER THOUGHT: “Dear Lord, give me a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. Let me not be intimidated but rather let me boldly make a clean break with every form of ungodly compromise, resisting all temptation to indulge in evil, no matter how rampant and normal they may be. Amen”
STAY BLESSED
PS NOTE: Quotations from Oswald Chambers’ – My Utmost for His Highest
