Be thou Holy

Leviticus 19:1-2 KJV
1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.


Have you ever considered these words?
Holy. Pure and righteous. Setting GOD as our example. Setting God's Holiness as our goal.
We failed in the garden to be sinless and holy.
In the days of Noah man was wicked and destroyed by God.
Moses was given 10 commandments to show us our goal. We failed miserably in the light of the law.

 Being holy is far more difficult than we think.
For we measure Holiness against that which we see.
We strive to attain the holiness perceived in other men. Those we assume are walking closer with God than ourselves.
Yet time and time again those we put on a pedestal prove themselves to be no more holy than us.
This again lowers our standards to our perception rather than to raise to our Father's standard.

Instead of trying to understand the character and righteousness of God, we try to grade holiness on a human curve and make the standard very very low.
For in God's very essence is the inability to tolerate any sin. Any unrighteousness.

We are fortunate in That Christ died for us, imputing His righteousness to us. God sees us through the shed blood of Christ. This is what makes it possible for us as christians able to gain salvation. To be heard in prayer, to have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
We may grieve the Holy Spirit with our sin, yet never do we lose our salvation once we have accepted Christ.

However, salvation, which imputes righteousness to us, does not make us Holy.
It does enter us into God's family tree.
It does give us the Spirit, which allows us, helps us, to work toward God's holiness if we listen.
Holiness is a work in progress. It is also called sanctification.

Sanctification is the act or process of acquiring sanctity, of being made or becoming holy.

Process. Acquiring. It is something that takes time and conscious effort.

Perhaps the best thing to remember is it is a work in progress, a process.

That our goal is to be holy as our Lord God is Holy.
Take our standards off of the people around us and place them firmly above us where they belong.
Stop holding yourself to standards based on those around you, start raising your standards to Him within you.
The greatest thing of all though is when we fall short of His holiness, His righteousness, He forgives and knows we are limited.
We have a Father who wants us to be our best through Him and His Spirit.
He wants to help us, He desires to work a good work through and in us.

We can not do it ourselves. Our righteousness is as filthy rags in His sight.


Not only does He ask us to attain this goal, but He does it for us if we allow it, surrendered and yielded to Him, we can achieve progress towards this goal.
We have a wonderful Father above.
He will do all the work for this if we but get out of the way.
Isaiah 64:6-8KJV


But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 7And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. 8But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand