Seeing through God’s Eyes
Judy Huffman's essay, Practical Holiness, has given us a lot to think about this week. And I pray that it's just reminded us of what it's all about.
The last point she makes in this essay is that to be holy as God is holy means seeing people the way God does. And again, this is helping us to get rid of that mindset that it's just about external moral actions. It's about so much more than that, being holy.
Do we see people with a divine view? Do we see people's true worth, recognizing that we're all equal before God? Do you long for others to experience the same love and forgiveness of Christ that you have? If you want to be holy as God is holy, see people through God's eyes.
Holiness in Action
As we said earlier in the week, there is no such thing as solitary Christianity or solitary holiness. God is always calling us to love, to serve and to build up others in our daily lives. And if that is our heart, if that is our desire and our focus, then we are sharing in something of God's holiness.
Of course, this sometimes means that we have to be tough and speak the truth in love. Sometimes it means speaking up when it's easier to just be quiet, being courageous enough to be honest, because God does. Jesus knew when to speak up and when to keep quiet. It's fascinating to see how he could do that in his life.
But, you see, if we're living in relationship with God as we spoke of yesterday, and if we're so close to him that every moment we are relying on him to affect his holiness in us, then we grow in our wisdom and learn more about how to navigate these situations.
Living God's Love
God says “be holy as I am holy” and friends let me say it one more time this week: This is not simply about following a list of rules, although those are helpful in our Christian lives, and we shouldn't neglect the rules. But they're not the essence of the holy life!
The essence of the holy life, the Godlike life, the Christlike life is resting in God's love and being a partner with God so that we can see people through his eyes.
May you and I be holy as he's holy in this way.
