Hebrews 12:14 Pursue… holiness, without which no one will see the Lord…
A sure sign that we are truly growing in our walk with Jesus, is an awareness for our need for Holiness.
One of the wonderful attributes of Jesus’ life was His constant pursuit of the will of the Father. Every part of His life was brought into perfect conformity to the will of His Father. Jesus said that He did not come from Heaven to do His own will, but “to do the will of Him who sent Me.”
John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
Jesus’ demonstration of Holiness was more than just the total absence of sin in His life. It was a perfect conformity to do the will of His Father. We can have the right actions in our life, but do them from a wrong motive. True Holiness is more than just the things we say and do. The reasons that we do these things must also be from Holiness.
True motives to be Holy in all our conduct must come from the desire to change our actions and words because it is the will of God. Our thoughts are known by God even before they are formed in our mind. How we think and form our thoughts should come from a foundation of desire to please the Lord even in these thoughts and motives.
The perfect and sinless life of Jesus was placed into the Bible as an example of how we can live if we choose to. Most of us see the life that Jesus lived and believe that we could never be that Holy in our conduct. The truth is, that the same power that was in Jesus to allow Him to live a Holy life as a man is in us, enabling us to do the same. The reason that it rarely is seen in a human being is that so few ever endeavor to pursue it.
Paul wrote that we should “Pursue Holiness…” Therefore it is possible to attain a Holy life with determination and a forethought to apprehend it.
When you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, you became Holy in the sight of God, by Jesus taking upon Himself all of your sins and replacing your unrighteousness with His perfect righteousness. It is now up to you to continue this righteousness in your life by the way that you live.
We start with a change in the basic elements of our thoughts. Thoughts are changed by being in contact with the Word of God more often, and the elements of the world less often. Television, music, videos and books are a prime source for where our ongoing thought processes will originate from. If we feed our mind the junk from this world, it is for certain that junk will fill our thoughts. If we fill our minds with things that are pure and righteous, then pure and righteous thoughts will begin to take over our thought processes.
Becoming more Holy in our behavior is a matter of practice and pursuit. The more we pursue purity and righteousness, the more often we will practice it in our life. If becoming more Holy in all our conduct is not a priority for us as a part of our claim to know Jesus, then it is questionable as to whether our confession is genuine. Everyone who has come into a genuine relationship with Jesus, comes to the realization of how Holy He is, and how far we are from that Holiness.
What if we began to examine all of our motives and actions today in light of the question: “Who am I doing this for, to please me or to please my Lord?” All our goals, plans, and even the impulsive actions of each day, who is this all for? If you are like myself, when I consider my life in light of who I am seeking to please, it makes me feel very uncomfortable. That is how I know that I have hit the correct nerve. By my uneasiness in asking these questions, I can perceive that I need to question all my motives and actions as to who is really the Lord of my life, me or Jesus to whom I claim to have submitted my life.
In this long walk of our life with Jesus, there are some tough choices that we will need to make along the way. To bring our behavior into conformity with Holy thoughts, motives and actions, or to go on living a life that is dictated by our own will and actions. Today is the day to make the change and we can do it if we “Pursue Holiness” with all of our heart.
Rob Robinson
