When I first became a follower of Jesus, there was one Bible verse that scared me. A LOT. It was Matthew 5:48: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Every time I read this verse, I thought about all of the ways I wasn’t perfect…especially when I compared myself to the holy God of the universe.
This verse doesn’t scare me anymore, though, because now I know I can lean on Jesus’ perfection to cover my imperfection. When I can’t measure up, HE steps in and does it for me.
That’s how holiness works too. On this side of heaven, we’ll never be completely holy. We can try with all of our might…but we’ll still fall short. Every. Single. Time. Most of us will probably continue to make mistakes up until the day we die.
The question, then, is this: why bother trying to be holy if it’s an impossible task? Why even try to live a holy life when you and I both know it’s not going to happen?
I think the answer to this question is in Matthew 5:14-16: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
We strive for holiness because it might lead someone to glorify God.
We strive for holiness because our actions reflect our Savior.
We strive for holiness because it matters, not just for eternity, but for today.
I love this quote from Kathy Howard’s new book, Embraced by Holiness: “God’s salvation not only changes our eternity, it also changes our here and now.”
Those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus as our Lord and Savior have a big task in front of us: to do our best to live holy lives that lead other people to glorify God.
Will we fall short? Of course. Will we still make mistakes? Sure.
But we keep striving for holiness because our holy actions might just bring someone to the throne room of our loving Father.
I don’t want to look back some day and realize my sins were the barrier that blocked someone from God. I don’t want to look back and realize my children, my family, and my friends don’t know Jesus because of how I acted. I want to do everything in my power to lead them to the throne. Don’t you?
Tweetables:
We strive for holiness because it matters, not just for eternity, but for today. @DoNotDepart #Holiness http://wp.me/p1Su7F-2Yf Click to Tweet.
One Really Good Reason to Strive for #Holiness @DoNotDepart http://wp.me/p1Su7F-2Yf Click to tweet.
One Really Good Reason to Live a Holy Life is a post from: Do Not Depart
