The Pursuit of Holiness...does the Holy Spirit have a monopoly in our lives?

Holiness.  I struggle with this everyday... do you too?  It is far too easy to utter the words, "Jesus is my First Love," but oh how hard it is to actually live that out in the midst of the world we move in and out of everyday.  I am utterly convinced, that we as Christians (parents as well as children) to live this life of holiness takes nothing less than His abundant sanctifying grace to equip us for such a thing (Titus 2:12). For in and of our own strength we will fall dramatically short.

The two songs above really sum up the desperateness and desire of my heart today and I hope they will be an encouragement to you too.  "Pledge My Head to Heaven" was written by my dear late friend, Keith Green, who understood this tension in his own life very well.  In short, our daily walk in Christ is what my friend Jerry Bridges calls, "The Pursuit of Holiness"  (cp Eph. 4-6).As I thought about what to write concerning this weighty theme, I could only think of focusing our thoughts on God alone.  Let's face it, to focus on ourselves is an exercise in futility.  Like it was with Peter so it will be with us.  When we take our eyes off of the Lord we sink into the depths of the turbulent sea below, gasping for air and struggling just to stay afloat. Left to ourselves to live the Christian life we end up drowning in our depravity, despair, and discouragement.  

There is no twelve step program to holiness beloved - no shortcuts prescribed. It is a daily crucible of grace that burns away the dross from our lives and leaves the metal more pure.  Happiness is convenient; but holiness costs.  For most of us it is the constant reality of our struggle with sin can be pictured by saying "one step up and two steps back."  One thing is for certain though (if we are painfully honest)on our best days, we are all "strangers to holiness."  Even as regenerated people, we are new creations incarcerated in unredeemed flesh (Roms. 6-7).  And there lies the battle this side of heaven for each of us: "The thing I want to do, I don't do; and the thing I don't want to do, I do.  O wretched man am I."

But praise be to God that as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:9-13), we do have hope, forgiveness, victory, and assurance in the Lord don't we.  As Charles Spurgeon one time said, "our finite sin can never exhaust His infinite grace." IOW,  He's a greater Savior than we are sinners; and it is there that we must take our refuge and rest (Roms. 5:8-10).   

So let us press on again today in the midst of our struggles, shortcomings, disappointments, and failures.  And may we, by His grace, treasure Him above all things.  To love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength -- and in turn, to love our neighbor as ourself.

From the bumps in the narrow road...
Steve
Romans 5:2