God’s Words are enduring and full of Life and the Power to transform us into people who will walk as Jesus walked. However, in order to find this place of transformation, we must embrace ALL of God’s Words. I find it easy to embrace the Word of God that says I am healed. I find it pleasant to embrace the Word that says I am to prosper. I enjoy the Words of God that speak of power and of authority. However there are other words in God’s Holy Words. There are words of correction. There are words that speak of holiness and God’s rule over our lives. There are words that require our obedience and our surrender. These words are far more difficult to embrace.
Today I was reading Psalm 101. It was written by someone who was hungry for God and craved an intimate relationship with God. He loved God. It was written by David. David loved God and understood that God wanted to change his life. It was David’s desire that his whole life would be worship to God. “I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will sing praise.” (Psalm 101:1, NIV84) It is the rest of this Psalm that speak of the difficult choices we make to live holy before God. Those choices of holiness are still ours to make today.
Here are the hard verses that require our obedience….
“I will be careful to lead a blameless life— when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart.” (Psalm 101:2, NIV84) In the Hebrew, this speaks of the wisdom and prudence to make choices that honor God. In the Amplified it says, “I will behave myself wisely and give heed to the blameless way.” Our behavior each day and each moment is our choice to honor God. Is what we are doing at this present moment something that honors God? Is what is in our house honoring to God? There was a season in my life when God began to point out old videos and books that I needed to throw away because my choices to sin in the past were holding me back from my future. I needed to remove everything in my house that did not honor God.
“I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me.” (Psalm 101:3, NIV84) Now it gets harder. Holiness and worship leads us to a place where we will not even look and consider at that things that God considers unholy. The call to holiness means a call to purity. That call means we begin to hate sin as much as God hates sin. When people around us sin, we will not participate in that sin. When others gossip, we build up. When others embrace deceit, we walk in truth. When others lust, we crave God.
“Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.” (Psalm 101:4, NIV84) Holiness separates us from those who willingly cling to unholiness. Holiness means that those who choose to cling to evil have no room for influence in our lives. “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”” (1 Corinthians 15:33, NIV84) Holiness does not mean that we never speak to those clinging to sin. To those in sin, Holiness in us proclaims God’s love, mercy and truth. I will not however allow those in sin to have any influence on me.
“Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.” (Psalm 101:5, NIV84) Holiness in God means that everything that is sinful will lead to a broken relationship with God. There are Christian’s who still slander their brothers and sisters in Christ. The consequence of slander that is not repented of is clear, God silences those who slander. As those who choose to follow God, we must choose to put away sin. Our choice to continue to sin will put up a barrier between us and God.
“My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me.” (Psalm 101:6, NIV84) Intimacy with God is reserved for those who faithfully embrace ALL God’s ways and ALL God’s holiness.
“No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.” (Psalm 101:7, NIV84) Once again, if we lie to our brother, if we lack integrity in our personal relationships, we are hypocrites and cannot dwell in the house of God. If we lie about others, we cannot stand in the presence of God. You cannot become a follower of Christ and continue in sin. “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”” (2 Timothy 2:19, NIV84)
“Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the Lord.” (Psalm 101:8, NIV84) Those who will not repent will be cut off from God. It is our decision each day to live a life of holiness, obedience and surrender to God. The more we choose to submit to God, the more we become empowered to live a Holy life before God. The more we surrender, the greater our intimacy will be with God.
How we spend our time, how we spend our money is very important. What we gaze at, how we speak reflects our holiness (or our lack of holiness). The good news of Christ is that when we repent, we receive grace and mercy and find ourselves once again in beautiful fellowship with God. However, our sin always will impact our relationship with God because God is still Holy.
Here is the promise of God for those who trust Jesus. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16, NIV84) As we approach the Holy throne of God, we receive the grace to turn from sin. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” (1 John 1:8–10, NIV84)
