What Do You Want Most?
“Just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written, ʻBe holy, because I am holy.ʼ” 1 Peter 1:15-16 NIV
Most of us have a ready answer to that question. Healing. Harmony in my home. Financial provision. World peace.
Joni Eareckson Tada has a perspective we would do well to adopt as our own. People often ask her if they can pray for her healing, as she has been a quadriplegic for many decades. She tells them what she really wants prayer for is, “That Iʼd quit complaining… That Iʼd be more optimistic and less fearful of the future… That I would stop cherishing inflated ideas of my own importance… That Iʼd refrain from keeping a record of my husbandʼs wrongs, and always think the best of others… That Iʼd stop hogging the spotlight and give credit to others where itʼs due. THESE are the areas in which Iʼd love to be healed!”*
Our holiness is what God is working in us to perfect. He may or may not heal us. He may give or He may take away. He may plant us or He may uproot us. He may allow a long and healthy life, or He may have appointed a sooner date for our last breath. But all He does in us, and all He did on the cross, is to conquer sin. Christ is, to quote Joni again, “On a search-and-destroy mission to uproot every sin, small and great, lurking in our hearts.”
“He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be HOLY AND BLAMELESS in His sight” (Ephesians 1:4 NIV).
No sin is acceptable. No sin is borderline, small, unimportant, or private. No wrong attitude, wrong thought, wrong action, or wrong word is acceptable. Is this too harsh? I donʼt think so, when I consider what Christ suffered so I could be free from it. After all, Christ Himself said, “Father, if there is ANY OTHER WAY, let this cup pass from Me,”—and then He went to the cross. We know that there was no other way.
The disciples asked Jesus, “Who then can be saved?” He looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25-26). The word possible here is the idea that God “has the ability to act and the power to accomplish. Christ gives assurance that however powerless our efforts to make things happen, He can demonstrate the dynamic power that translates people from Satanʼs realm to Godʼs kingdom.”**
God, we ask You to seek out any lurking sin in our hearts, and show it to us, that we may deal with it. We are deceived much of the time, but You are the Truth. Reveal to us the truth about ourselves, and help us to receive it, and make us willing to change. In Jesusʼ name, Amen.
Yes! I need to turn and face Him walking in His forgiveness and purity.
Amen