Personal Holiness

Sunday, ‎March ‎26, ‎2023

Good morning, Lord

Verse of the Day: Til I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.—1 Timothy 4:13

Memory of the Month: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Today's reading: JUDGES 1-3 LUKE 4:1-30

Personal Holiness

The Scripture tells us to:

Seek God first; Matthew 6:33

English Standard Version

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The Amplified Bible says it this way:

33 But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also.

My prayer is that we all are drawn by the Holy Spirit to seek God's righteousness-[His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God] so that we experience a degree of personal holiness. Why?

1 Peter 1:15 But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, 16for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

What is personal holiness? Simply, it is in this verse: 1 Peter 1:15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;

-[His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God]

Doing things God's way by His attitude and His character is experiencing personal holiness. When we seek God's kingdom, it means we follow God. It means we glean every word as we comb through the scriptures to learn the character of God Almighty. It means we find the path He has prepared for each of us to follow and this means that only we can be shown by Him how we are to individually live, move and have our being.

Personal holiness is like humility. We cannot set a goal to become holy-we cannot, one day wake and proclaim, "I have arrived; I am finally holy".

Only God defines holiness. It is His holiness that we seek, therefore, our personal holiness is His. We must lay claim on God's holiness. He lays claim on us as we are marked by the Holy Spirit upon our salvation in Christ Jesus.

It is the Holy Spirit who counsels us to live in His holiness and guides us in our seeking of God's righteousness. It is the Holy Spirit who speaks to us from His Word and shapes us for His good purposes.

Our part is in the concept of 'seeking'. We have to commit to seek.

Psalm 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord,

Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.

Proverbs 16:3 Commit your works to the Lord,

And your thoughts will be established.

What shall be our way? Jesus said, John 14, "I am the way...".

What are our works?

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

But what comes before the works?

Luke 9:23-27 - 23 “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Each day, our lives in Christ and in seeking His kingdom begins with taking up our own cross-dying to self and humbling ourselves under God's Holy Hand.

Yes, God is in control but gave us free will. We cannot blame our weak resolve on Him. God has given us all we need but we still have our part to do. The battle is the Lord's but we must sharpen the weapons in our quiver. It is our responsibility to yield-to continue to choose to keep yielding and seeking. God will not do His work for us-God will work through us. He will not empower that which He does not control.

Surrender your will, die to self, and seek with all you are.

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

It is my self that gets in the way. My resolve must grow. Have mercy on me and let me see the truth in my life-let me see Your righteousness.

Great , glorious, merciful and holy God,

In Jesus' name,

Amen