Destined To
Be Holy
- Oswald Chambers
. . it is written,
’Be holy, for I am holy’ —1 Peter 1:16
We must continually
remind ourselves of the purpose of life. We are not destined to
happiness, nor to health, but to holiness. Today we have far too many
desires and interests, and our lives are being consumed and wasted by
them. Many of them may be right, noble, and good, and may later be
fulfilled, but in the meantime God must cause their importance to us to
decrease. The only thing that truly matters is whether a person will
accept the God who will make him holy. At all costs, a person must have
the right relationship with God.
Do I believe I need
to be holy? Do I believe that God can come into me and make me holy? If
through your preaching you convince me that I am unholy, I then resent
your preaching. The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense
resentment because it is designed to reveal my unholiness, but it also
awakens an intense yearning and desire within me. God has only one
intended destiny for mankind— holiness. His only goal is to produce
saints. God is not some eternal blessing-machine for people to use, and
He did not come to save us out of pity— He came to save us because He
created us to be holy. Atonement through the Cross of Christ means that
God can put me back into perfect oneness with Himself through the death
of Jesus Christ, without a trace of anything coming between us any
longer.
Never tolerate,
because of sympathy for yourself or for others, any practice that is not
in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means absolute purity of your walk
before God, the words coming from your mouth, and every thought in your
mind— placing every detail of your life under the scrutiny of God
Himself. Holiness is not simply what God gives me, but what God has
given me that is being exhibited in my life.
