Holy, Holy, Holy

I am the LORD your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. So do not defile yourselves with any of these small animals that scurry along the ground. For I, the LORD, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.

Leviticus 11:44-45

When God commands, he also promises. He never gives us a command that he does not empower us to obey. He commands us to consecrate ourselves and be holy; therefore, we can assume that he will give us the power, the desire, and the ability to do as he commands. What he requires, he also provides for.

A call to holiness sounds awfully intimidating and unrealistic. On some level, perhaps even unappealing. You might have an idea of holiness as being stuffy and stern. You might imagine a life of trying hard to live up to an impossible standard and failing more often than you succeed.

But let’s define holiness. It means to be taken out of common use and set aside for God’s purposes. God set aside one day of the week as the Sabbath, taking it out of common use and designating it to be used differently—for him. Holy. He called out a nation from among all the nations of the earth and designated it to be his nation, set aside for his use. Holy.

He has called you and designated you to live for his purposes and no other. You are holy. He has declared you holy and appointed your life to be his. God has a design for your life, and he created you in every way so that his design is the best fit for you. Yours is not an off-the-rack, one-size-fits-all, generic life. You are holy. Precious. Fashioned in every detail to fulfill a specific plan.

Because you are holy, God is training you to be holy in your behavior and to pursue God’s purposes for you. That is what will bring peace into your life—when your behaviors match your identity.

Father, I long to feel fulfilled and live with purpose and direction. I am set aside for you, and nothing else fits. Today, I turn away from all the other ways I have tried to make myself feel significant, and I bow to your plan and your design.

Holiness is the symmetry of the soul.

Philip Henry(1631–1696), English clergyman and diarist