Making Me Holy

On a Monday morning, some truths need to be repeated as guilt can wash in like a flood.

"You slept through your alarm and didn't do your devotions? Oh, wait. You didn't even set your alarm. What kind of person are you?"

"You do this every weekend. Devotions seems to start and end with weekdays. Not even on Sunday!"

"You said you'd do better this time, well, you didn't."

And the voices go on and on... but only if I let them. Because they are not truth, they are not who He is.

I can so easily transpose human emotion onto a God who never changes. I can imagine Him miffed by my unconcern toward spending time with Him or my blatant refusal of His wishes. Yes, I'm sure He is disappointed. But miffed, holding back on me and keeping His presence from me so I feel His distance even as I was distant from Him before?

No. He is not a vengeful God towards His children.

And there's a line that goes through my head. It's from a song one of the students wrote last year:

You make me holy. You make me holy. You make me holy, You make me holy.

Truth that resounds.

You see, I can so easily forget what Hebrews 12:12 is really trying to say:

We do this [running with endurance] by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. (Hebrews 12:2a)

He initiated. And He perfects. My deeds were not what got me into the position of a highly favoured child of God. And they won't get me out of it either. Which is not a license for sinning more, but what enables me to look beyond my failures of a weekend and to know that my God is ready and waiting to perfect my faith as I come to Him.

He makes me holy. Hallelujah!