Tag: set apart

A prayer for holiness

Reflections based on 1 Thessalonians 3:12–13; 2 Timothy 2:20–22.

Today’s short reading, which I have chosen from 1 Thessalonians 3:12, is my prayer for you as we end this study on holiness together. The verses talk about how it is Jesus who makes us strong and enables us to love one another. Not only that, Paul is reminding the Thessalonian church that it is the Holy Spirit alone who can strengthen them – from the heart outwards. He does this for each one of us, in order for us to be ‘blameless and holy’ before God. 

During this study we have looked at how holy our God is, why blood sacrifice was necessary for us to have a restored relationship with Him and what responsibility we have to pursue holiness. In our final look at holiness I want to come full circle, back to a reminder that, for all the efforts that we do need to put in, becoming holy is based on our standing in Christ and the work that the Holy Spirit does within us.

As we have seen, holiness means being set apart. Two Timothy reminds us that vessels can be used for both noble or common uses. Paul was urging Timothy to allow God to use him for His higher purposes. I love the way The Message translates verse 22: ‘Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.’

There needs to be a willingness to set aside our own agendas and bow to God’s will for our lives in order to be made holy and to bless others. But that is also the way to satisfaction and fruitfulness. Remember: we have been made alive in Christ – becoming holy simply means becoming more the people that we were created to be.

Prayer: Lord, thank You that in You I am blameless before God. I recognise that continuing to pursue holiness is the way to become the person You want me to be. Help me to submit to the work that the Holy Spirit is doing in my life. Amen.

A holy nation

Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels

Reflections based on 1 Peter 2:4–10.

This passage is reminiscent of the way that God referred to the Israelites – how He set them apart to be His people. There is further Old Testament language used here: the holy priesthood and spiritual sacrifices. Isaiah 28 is quoted, reminding us that Jesus is the stone that God’s holy temple is built on. The amazing thing is that we not only get to be God’s holy dwelling place, we are knitted together with others into a much bigger ‘spiritual house’.

We saw last week how the Holy Spirit testifies that we are children of God. Here we are being reminded that the truth is even bigger than that. We gain a sense of perspective through this reading; it isn’t just about you or me as an individual. Yes, we are important and precious to God, but we are part of a ‘chosen people’, a ‘holy nation’ that God has set apart for Himself. As we saw with the Old Testament passages we looked at earlier in this study, a lot of Scripture focuses on corporate holiness. That is why I wanted to include 1 Peter 2; to show that it wasn’t just an Old Testament concept. It is also a good reminder that we are not to focus on ourselves but live in the light of the fact that we are stones being built into the same building as our fellow believers.

In the Old Testament we saw how ‘God’s people had a priesthood, but today God’s people are a priesthood.’* In biblical times especially, it was a privilege to be a priest – today all that we do, both individually but also together, should therefore be for God’s glory. As verse 9 tells us, the responsibility of our shared calling is to reveal ‘the praises of him’ to the world around us.

Prayer: Lord You have called me, and my fellow believers, to be Your holy nation. Help us to live and work in unity, revealing Your glory to those we come into contact with. Amen.

*Warren Wiersbe, Be Hopeful: How to make the best times out of your worst of times (1 Peter) (David C Cook, 2009).
NB This study was first written for Inspiring Women Every Day. It wasn’t until I was uploading this page to my blog that I made the connection that so much of my research for such Bible notes has included books by Warren Wiersbe. I am truly grateful for his life, and the lives of our other dear brothers and sisters who have died recently, including Rachel Held Evans and Jean Vanier. We influence one another just by sharing our lives, and/or putting our ideas and thoughts ‘out there’ for one another to read and think about. The three I mention here were from different Christian traditions, but each brought fresh revelations to me and countless others. We truly are a varied ‘spiritual house’ – but may we be built up into unity with one another.

Are you ‘set apart’?

As a church we have started the new year by signing up to follow the Scripture Union Word Live Bible plan for 2014 – you can find more details about this here. Today’s reading was a difficult passage in Leviticus 11 about clean and unclean foods. It can be so tempting to skim over these portions of scripture really quickly, and I’m not actually going to spend time unpacking it here, but there was one verse that really stood out for me:

‘I am the LORD, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.’

A friend of mine who is much more ‘learned’ in theological matters pointed out that the word for holy that is used here actually means ‘set apart’. (He is blogging his way through Word Live this year – for some amazing insights do sign up to his Blog through the Bible.) Anyway, back to the point in hand. However confusing we can find the list of dos and don’ts in the Old Testament, the crux of the matter is that God is a holy God, and His people must be holy too. That doesn’t change between the Old and New Testaments so it means us today too! 😉

Reading this passage this morning I was stopped in my tracks by the above verse. It made me question – am I holy/set apart? Do those around me recognise that quality in me; see there is something different about me and acknowledge that I am indeed one of God’s ‘set apart’ people? Or do I simply blend in to the culture around me? How easily do I allow myself to be swayed and influenced by the people and situations I find myself surrounded by? I know I am not to set myself apart so much that I no longer connect with people and reach out to them – but the challenge is to be in this world but not of it. How well do you think you are doing with this?

One woman who is working out her faith in an industry known for its stress and cut-throat approach is Annabel Partridge. Last year she also completed the Cycle for Freedom for The A21 Campaign. Read my interview with her here. (Sorry for the shameless plug – I just think her story is inspirational.) Thanks for your understanding ;D