It’s Friday…Let It Go

Is it possible to be so familiar with this most spectacular truth that it can dull our senses: Human beings can have a personal relationship with the unimaginably awesome God. Perhaps we’ve heard this so many times it’s easy to take it for granted. Yet, for anyone who will let that startling truth sink deep within, it can be overwhelming.

What makes a personal relationship with God possible? Well, the legal side of this truth is that the cleansing sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross removes our impurity and makes us pure. The practical side of this truth is God’s ongoing and intimate relationship with us makes it a reality. And one word that makes this real is holiness – the process of becoming like Him.

“Just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I Am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:15-16)

Those among us who need impressive theological terms to validate this truth call it “sanctification.”  So, if the sacrifice of Jesus became the substitute and basis for our relationship with God, then our sanctification, holiness, is its practical application. We cannot know God well without being holy.

When we first encounter God, we come face-to-face with this overwhelming obstacle: How can I, so thoroughly not like God, have a personal relationship with Him who is perfectly holy without one of us having to radically change our character? And we all know that God isn’t the one that needs to change. He can’t. It must be us.

Far too many people who have placed their faith in Jesus are content with just the legal basis of their salvation without taking much thought to apply it to their character. Here’s the truth, we can’t know God – really know Him – and have a personal relationship with Him unless we become like Him.

Here’s also the truth, such a personal relationship with God will put a hurt to our self-centered ways. Becoming like Jesus, to be holy, does painful damage to our flesh, our sinful nature. As humans, we are slow to surrender.

If you’re like me, you too have assumed that God would never ask you to forsake some of your natural tendencies. Let’s quit making that assumption. God certainly will. So, that sin we tolerate? Let It Go. However painful it is, let’s allow God to do His work in us and make us holy. Let’s abandon all that isn’t like His pure and perfect character. Let’s desire to be holy more than anything else.

Have a sacred weekend. Make it better by worshiping The LORD with those who know who they are, who know whose they are, and desire to be like Him.

All For Jesus – Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else.

“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, The King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15b-16)