Called to a life of holiness

God calls us to be holy as He is holy. To be holy is to be set apart from the world for God’s sacred use to be used by Him for the purpose for which He created us.  When God calls us to be Holy as He is Holy He is calling us to set ourselves apart from all sin and be set apart to Him, surrendering our lives to Him.

God’s call to us to be holy comes out of His deep desire to have a close and intimate relationship with His people.  He yearns to enjoy with us the kind of fellowship He enjoyed with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they sinned.  It was sin that drove them from the Garden out of the presence of a holy God who is of purer eyes than to behold evil (Habakkuk 1:13).  When God calls us to be holy as He is holy, it is a cry from His heart to us to separate ourselves from everything that is unholy and not let it separate us from Him.  He pleads with us not to do this abominable thing that He hates (Jeremiah 44:4).  God hates the sin and loves the sinner and so longs for restored fellowship with us that He sent His Beloved Son to die for us that by His death our sin could be removed from His sight forevermore and broken fellowship between a holy God and sinful man would be restored.  God in His love and mercy had made the way for us to now live in close communion with a holy God, and we can enjoy fellowship with Him, not because we deserve it, but because of His grace.

As we walk with Him in the light as He is in the light we will enjoy unbroken fellowship with Him and with each other.  When we sin we grieve the Holy Spirit and our fellowship is affected, but as our gracious God tells us “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin” (1 John 7 -9) and our fellowship in the Holy Spirit is restored. 

We can only be holy by allowing the Holy Spirit to sanctify us, to change us from the inside out and birth in us the same desire for fellowship with God as God desires to have with us.  May we let Him have His way with us.   God’s desire is to be our God and for us to be His people.  May our hearts be filled with the desire to obey Him and do always those things that please Him.

CHALLENGE

What are some of the things that can separate us from close communion with the Father.  What communion can light have with darkness? Then neither can God’s holiness have any communion with sin. Let us keep short accounts with God, seeking His forgiveness as soon as we commit sin and ask the Holy Spirit to come and fill us and help us turn our backs on sin.

 PRAYER

Search me, O God, and know my heart.  Try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.