Do What Makes You HOLY

    

First off, I LOVE a good graphic tee. Especially when that tee serves as a reminder for me.  I have several I will share with you in due time. Also, I hate selfies. But here I am embracing all the awkward and sharing my selfie and myself (see what I did there 😂😎) with you. 

Are you struggling to figure out what it is you should do with your life?  I know I have, and I do often. But I am starting to wonder if I am asking the wrong question.  Do you pray and ask God what it is that you should do? For him to reveal His plan for your life so that you can be the person that He has created you to be? Oh man, this prayer seems to be on repeat for me, God please just reveal your plan for me through this or that situation, over and over again. But what if this very good question is simply the wrong way to approach our desire to become more pleasing to God? What if we flip our mindset and instead of being focused on the outcome of our actions and how they can please God we allow God to change our hearts so that our actions are coming from a different place? What if we desire to be sanctified each day to become holy as God is holy?  Instead of doing what makes us happy, or makes the best sense based on the information we have we instead choose to do what makes us holy.   

Now hang with me here.  I am not saying that we can be holy as God is holy.  The bible tells us that God is "Holy, holy holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." (Isaiah 6:3) This is perfect holiness. God is perfect holiness.  According to Merriam-Webster online holy means "1. exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness 2. Divine 3. devoted entirely to the deity or the work of deity 4. having a divine quality, venerated as or as if sacred." So to the effect that only God is worthy to be exalted of complete devotion because He is the only one who is perfect in goodness and righteousness, we can never measure up to this, but we can be sanctified. Sanctification is the process of being made holy.  We will only ever be a work in progress this side of eternity.  

I love how Lysa Terkeurst says it in her book Uninvited  "We are imperfect because we are unfinished.  So, as unfinished creations, of course everything we touch will have imperfections. Everything we attempt will have imperfections. Everything we accomplish will have imperfections. And that's when it hit me: I expect a perfection in me and a perfection in others that not even God himself expects.  If God is patient with the process, why can't I be?" Y'all for real, this passage from her book ROCKED my world.  And I took a deep breath and it was as if God was whispering to me "You are my work in progress, Allow me to work through you. You can do nothing apart from me." I am a work in progress, so I am trying to change my mindset.  Instead of being seen as a "good or perfect person" I am allowing to show that I am unfinished.  I am hopefully different today than I was yesterday. I am definitely different today than I was several years ago. Instead of asking God what it is I should do, I am asking him to teach me, lead me, guide my steps, to make me more like Jesus today than I was yesterday.  

I am clinging to the truth from Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." This truth has changed my prayer from "Why did this happen, to God what am I supposed to be learning from this, how am I to be changed by this?" All things. How is God using all things to change me, to make me more holy today than I was yesterday, being sanctified. 

1 Peter 1:13-16 tells us, "Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." How are we preparing our minds for action and being sober-minded? We cannot be prepared for action if we are not learning and growing and changing.  We must be people of action, willing to be in a state of change and movement toward holiness. Where is my hope?  Am I setting my "hope fully on the grace that will be brought to me at the revelation of Jesus Christ"? I must set my hope fully in Jesus Christ and the work he has and continues to do in me. Again, here in Peter we are reminded "not to be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance" the world is consumed by its own ignorance.  We were once lost in the ignorance of the world, but once we know the Lord we are beginning in wisdom. (Proverbs 9;10) Another familiar verse demands recognition here again, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind (Romans 12:2)".  Over and over God is telling me to break free of the old me, the old way of living and to be made new, more like Christ every single day. 

Are you willing to strive toward perfection and accept that we will fall short but allow God to move you toward holiness every single day?  I'll leave you with a great Maya Angelou quote that you can apply to so many things in life, and I feel like it screams with this biblical truth of being sanctified and moved toward holiness every single day. You are a different person today than you were yesterday.  Be holy, because God is holy.