Holy Living

Today’s Reading:  1 Sam 22:1–23:29, 1 Pet 1:13–19, Ps 123:1–124:8

Today’s Theme: Holy Living

Today theme is Living Holy, Our God is Holy and he calls us to be holy in all we do.

Honour your mum and dad

And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother stay with you, till I know what God will do for me.” 1 Samuel 22:3 (ESV)

Much of what we must do to live a holy life does not appear to be deeply spiritual, Holy living often finds its expression in very practical works of obedience.

David shows his heart for his parents and his desire to obey the 5th commandment to honour his father and mother by seeking their protection

We must obey the 5th commandment no matter how old we are. Our culture in the West can leave the older members of our families feeling unloved, like they are a washed up inconvenience. We as God’s people should not live in this self centred way we should honour our parents. See Ephesians 6:1 and Colossians 3:20

Ask God about it

Then David inquired of the LORD again. And the LORD answered him, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” 1 Samuel 23:4 (ESV)

A key to living a holy life before God is to ask God about everything you do. Prayer simply means to ask. We must ask God about the things we do in our everyday life.

David always prayed about everything he had to do, this was because he had a loving relationship with God which is testified by God himself and the Psalms David wrote.

Jesus told us in Mark 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Prepare your mind for action

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:13 (ESV)

The mind is a muscle, it needs to be exercised. The mind is also a container, it needs to be filled with good things.

The Devil would like us to think of the mind as his domain and so not exercise it in the study, thinking about and living of God’s word. He would also like us to fill our minds with garbage at best and poison at worst through evil teaching, bad thinking and the philosophies of this world.

Peter in his great call to holiness in the life of the Christian first calls us to get our minds ready for trials and hard times by commanding us to hope, and not just to have an aimless hope but to put our hope in God’s future grace promised to believers that are ours in Jesus and will be realised at the second coming.

Looking forward in our hearts and minds to the second coming of Christ will give us perspective as we face difficulty, we can endure in holiness because of the grace we are promised in the future.

Be Holy

but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 1 Peter 1:15 (ESV)

Our motivation for pursuing a life of holiness is God, God is holy so we should be holy in all our conduct too.

Holiness is not some spiritual state which has noting to do with the rest of our lives. Holiness is very much connected to our everyday lives, in our normal conduct we must remain set apart for God.

A definition of holiness will be useful to help us think about what it means to be holy. Here is a short one from the Pocket dictionary of theological terms by InterVarsity Press:

“A biblical term generally meaning “to be set apart.” The term is used widely in Scripture to refer to a variety of people and objects alike but ultimately points to God as the one who is qualitatively different or set apart from creation. Holy may also be used to describe someone or something that God has “set apart” for special purposes. In the NT holiness takes on the sense of ethical purity or freedom from sin…”

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to be holy.

Look to God

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us. Psalm 123:2 (ESV)

We look to God our Master and Provider to show us the mercy we so desperately need

We have escaped

We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped! Psalm 124:7 (ESV)

We have escaped the hunter’s trap… Hallelujah, now lets live holy lives in the joy and hope of God.