Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Holiness

"Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God." Lev. 20:7

Can we really be "holy?"  Until this morning, I never thought about being holy as much as I have thought of being perfect as God is perfect. I looked up the meaning of holiness to see if it was anything similar, and the definition is basically purity or perfection!

"For thou are an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all the people that are upon the face of the earth." Deut. 7:6

So how can we be humbly holy before God? What is God's view of holiness that He has for His people?

I read a quote this morning that is a simple yet profound definition of holiness. It is found in Youth's Instructor, February 17, 1898.

"Holiness is not rapture; it is the result of surrendering all to God; it is living by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; it is doing the will of our Heavenly Father; it is trusting in God in trial, believing in His promise in the darkness as well as in the light."

Being holy before God even as He is takes on a whole new meaning now.  When God asks us to sanctify ourselves so that we may be holy, it means surrendering those little things that keep us from serving Him with a whole heart; it means studying the Word and living by the Word; it is trusting God implicitly in the darkest times of our lives. We can be holy before God--through the strength of Christ. 

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