Week 12 Day 1 Devotions
Do You Want to Be Holy?
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24
John Wesley believed that God raised up Methodism in order to spread Scriptural Holiness through the land. Methodism was perhaps never meant to be a church (denomination), as much as a revival movement within the Church. Today, as much as ever or perhaps even more than ever, God doesn't want people in new churches as much as He wants new people in His church. “We must be born again” says Jesus, and we must pursue holiness and grow in holiness, because “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). This week our devotional focus is on some of those things which hinder our growth in holiness, looking in particular at judging others, casting our pearls before swine, our lack of prayer and our lack of charity or love.
Before we meditate on the possibility of things hindering our growth in holiness it is important that there be a belief that we are indeed called to be holy and that it is possible to be holy. The Old Testament command, “Be holy, because I am holy,” (Leviticus 11:45) and the New Testament command, “Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do” (1 Peter 1:15), both speak to us unequivocally on the subject of personal holiness.
The Psalmist can once again teach us the words and show us the heart we need. Give God permission to search you and to know your heartfelt feelings regarding holiness. Give God permission to test you particularly in the areas in which you may be anxious regarding holiness and what it will mean in your life right now. Realise that there is much within us which we, or the world, or both, think is acceptable but which is offensive to God. Finally, ask God to show you His way and commit yourself to walking in it.
Eugène Peterson's translation of the Bible, The Message, puts it like this: “Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I'm about; See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong-- then guide me on the road to eternal life.”
Do you want to be holy and do you want to confront hindrances to holiness in your life?
Try us, O God, and search the ground
Of every sinful heart!
Whate'er of sin in us is found,
O bid it all depart! (489)
