CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 976

 “Holy, Loving, Perfect”

For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44)

 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

 I grew up in a religious tradition based upon works righteousness. I was never sure of my salvation feeling like I had to earn it again and again. I remember vividly the only time in my life that I took the Lord’s Name in vain. I was picked off trying to steal home plate during a baseball game and I swore. I expected lightning to immediately fall from the sky and that I would become ‘bacon on the baseline’ for my sin. I left the game and ran to confession to seek absolution.

 As I reflect on these three Scriptures I am reminded of how futile works righteousness is.

God expects us to be holy. I cannot live a holy lifestyle in my own power, strength and ability.

God exhorts us to be loving. I have to confess that I do not act out in love toward all people all the time. I confess that when I choose to sin, I am choosing to not love God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind.

God commands us to be perfect. I cannot. Lord knows I have tried and I simply cannot.

The command of God in these three Scriptures is not designed to bring us to hopeless despair but rather to drive us by God’s grace to the hope we have through Jesus Christ. It is through His death and resurrection that we may have eternal life. It is by His grace and through Jesus that we can live an overcoming life this side of eternity.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ… (Titus 2:11-13)

By God’s grace the Holy Spirit empowers us to make right choices to be holy, loving, and perfect. When our heart’s desire is truly to seek first His kingdom and righteousness, we become more attuned to His abiding presence and can more clearly hear and obey His voice and direction.

May our hearts yield to the Holy Spirit and by His grace may we learn to renounce all ungodliness as we grow in grace to be holy, loving and perfect. We pray in the Name of Jesus. Amen.