To Make Us Holy

[Daily Devotional]

To Make Us Holy 

Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy. Lev. 19: 2. 

Holiness is not rapture: it is an entire surrender of the will to God; it is
living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God; it is doing the
will of our heavenly Father; it is trusting God in trial, in darkness as
well as in the light; it is walking by faith and not by sight; it is relying
on God with unquestioning confidence, and resting in His love. 

Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them. . . . Education, culture,
the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but
here they are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of
behaviour, but they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs
of life. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above,
before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His
grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it
to God, to holiness. 

No man receives holiness as a birthright, or as a gift from any other human
being. Holiness is the gift of God through Christ. Those who receive the
Saviour become sons of God. They are His spiritual children, born again,
renewed in righteousness and true holiness. Their minds are changed. With
clearer vision they behold eternal realities. They are adopted into God's
family, and they become conformed to His likeness, changed by His Spirit
from glory to glory. From cherishing supreme love for self, they come to
cherish supreme love for God and for Christ. . . . Accepting Christ as a
personal Saviour, and following His example of self- denial-- this is the
secret of holiness. 

Forgetting the things that are behind, let us press forward in the
heavenward way. Let us neglect no opportunity that, if improved, will make
us more useful in God's service. Then like threads of gold, holiness will
run through our lives, and the angels, beholding our consecration, will
repeat the promise, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a
man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isa. 13: 12). All heaven rejoices when
weak, faulty human beings give themselves to Jesus, to live His life. 

>From God's Amazing Grace - Page 119