“Strive for peace with all men,
and for holiness
without which no one will see
God.”
(Heb. 12:14)
Holiness
is Supernatural.
This
is by far the most important characteristic of holiness. Even the discipline
required to maintain practical day to day holiness is a fruit of the Holy
Spirit in our lives. Don't miss the fact that God's Spirit is the HOLY Spirit.
All
holiness in the human heart begins with the new birth. Only God can change your
nature. You must be born of the Spirit.
In
the Lord's Prayer Jesus instructed us to pray lest we be led into temptation
and that we might be delivered from evil. I often need to pray for God to
deliver me from lust or from entering situations where I will be tempted to
lust or to some other sin.
We are tempted by an unholy heart,
an unholy world and the enemy of all holiness. But we can call upon God to
change our hearts and deliver us from temptation.
I was talking with my beloved wife yesterday about something similar. I mentioned to her that God's word says for us to hide His word in our hearts that we might not sin against Him. I began to think about that statement and how it has been misappropriated to simply mean memorize scripture. That's a part of it - but not the whole. Many people memorize scripture and hide His word in their minds - but it doesn't make the journey to the heart.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to holiness, many believers have a mental understanding that God's word tells us to be holy but it has never touched their hearts. After 25 years of preaching I cannot even recall a single Christian coming up to me, painfully aware of how they need God's holiness and desperate for it.
My question, then, is: what will it take to fill the heart with a longing for the holiness of God?