Meditate. Who is God to you? Are you looking to Him for your salvation?
So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, "You must be holy because I am holy." And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as "foreigners in the land." For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days. Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. 1 Peter 1:13-21
So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered
heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High
Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same
testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our
gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help
us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:14-16
Come boldly before the throne. The Throne of God—the Holy One—who wants us to be holy, too.
Peter gave us such wisdom in our
focus scripture passage. Think clearly. That is so important during
these stressful days of the COVID pandemic. Think clearly. Don’t let
others demands and restrictions control you to the point that you don’t think
for yourself. Make your own decisions and above all put Jesus Christ first in
your life. Think clearly. Exercise self-control. Don’t put yourself in harms way…protect
your family—mask up when necessary (hopefully not in your own home) and social
distance as appropriate—but don’t forsake the assembling together with other
Christians, serving others or helping your neighbors. Those things are
important, too. God wants us to love Him and to love our neighbors as
ourselves. Those summarize the Ten Commandments and were Jesus’ statement as to
the greatest commandments. Good objectives by which to live. By living with
those goals in mind we will be pleasing God…and attaining the holiness He
desires. Yet we can truly only do that by God’s grace—His unmerited favor in
our lives.
For I am the LORD your God. You must consecrate yourselves
and be holy, because I am holy. So do not defile yourselves with any of these
small animals that scurry along the ground. For I, the LORD, am the one who
brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you
must be holy because I am holy. Leviticus 11:44-45 (Underlined for emphasis.)
We can only hope to attain holiness before the Lord. It is my goal…is it yours?
Prayer ~ Lord God, purify me,
as David wrote… Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit
within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit
from me. Psalm 51:10-11. I look forward to standing before You someday…pure
and holy.
Verse of Salvation ~ Restore to
me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. Psalm 51:12
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