Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
(1 Peter 1:13-16 (NIV))
For anybody who professes to follow Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, this is excellent advise.
Too many people in the world today have the false impression that whatever we do is ok because God loves us and He wouldn’t condemn us for being who He made us to be. What they fail to take into consideration is that God did not create us in the current state that we find ourselves in. He created us to live in a perfect paradise and have a perfect relationship with Himself. Satan entered the picture and sin separated us completely from God. God did not create us to rebel and have a sinful nature. That was our doing. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, we have been a fallen race. We have been doing things that God does not want us to do. God’s perfect creation was ruined by our rebellion. God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden because of that rebellion. What makes you think that God would accept us and our sins since He didn’t accept the original sinners when all that they did was disobey Him? We disobey God every single day of our lives.
Thankfully, God gave us a way to return to Him of our own free will. He knows that we cannot be sin free and righteous all on our own, so He sent His Son, Jesus, to atone for our sinful nature. To receive this gift of grace, all that we have to do is accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior and repent of our sins. God never told us that we could go on sinning! He wants us to conform to the likeness of Jesus. He wants us to be holy. Our holiness is inherited. It comes from accepting grace through Jesus. It comes new every day, for each day we fall short of being holy. Thankfully, we are washed anew every day when we repent and ask Jesus to guide us.
On my own, I am far from holy. With Jesus, God sees me as holy because He sees Jesus in me!
Copyright 1998 – 2016 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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