“For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy…” Leviticus 11:44
What does being holy look like? Holiness is what I long for. Holy is what I want to be. All I have to do is get out of bed and I mess up. Again. I stink at being holy. I want to be holy in my thoughts and my actions. Why did God ask me to be holy when He knows I can’t be?
In Matthew 5:48 God asks us to “be perfect; as our Father in Heaven is perfect.” Ok, so now God is asking us to be holy and perfect. Holiness is God’s standard of righteousness. Perfection is His goal for us. That is what we must strive to be but how in the world is that possible; while we walk on this earth , bones draped in our sinful flesh?
The Lord is mindful that we are but flesh. Paul talked about putting to death the deeds of the body in Romans 8:13. He says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Paul struggled with these things continually. In Romans 7 Paul speaks of seeing “another law in his members, warring against the law of his mind and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which is in his members.” He said, “Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death. I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”
It’s a daily struggle to be holy as He is holy. It’s only by submitting to His Holy Spirit that we can be holy. We won’t obtain non-stop holiness and perfection until we get to heaven. However; Jesus wants us to read His Word, pray and worship Him. When we practice these spiritual disciplines; we strive to have the mind of Christ. Philippians 2:5 tells us to “Let this mind be in you which is in Christ Jesus.”
He’s the only perfect One.
When we sin, we have a Savior to whom we can go and ask forgiveness. He removes our sin from us as far as the east is from the west and remembers it no more. Slate clean, until the next time. It’s a continual, daily process. I am made holy only by His stripes and spilled blood of Jesus. Thank You Lord!
Prayer in Motion:
Jesus, please help me to be holy as You are holy. That is truly what I long for. That is what I want to be. Thank You for continually forgiving my sin and training me in righteousness. I love You Lord. In Jesus Name. Amen
