DO MY LIFE CHOICES REFLECT MY ROYAL HERITAGE?
When Holiness, the Heart God Purifies was released I was privileged to receive an inscribed copy from my friend, Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Having read the other two books in the trilogy, Brokenness, the Heart God Revives and Surrender, the Heart God Controls, I eagerly began to read the final volume. The introduction assured me that my life was going to be changed if I was going to do more than simply read the 194 pages. Nancy challenges her readers at the conclusion of the Introduction to expectantly pray the prayer below for a minimum of thirty days.
Oh, God,
Show me more of Your holiness.
Show me more of my sinfulness.
Help me to hate sin and to love righteousness as You do.
Grant me a deeper conviction of sin
And a more thorough spirit of repentance.
And make me holy as You are holy.1
I chose to accept the challenge and have actually continued to pray the prayer daily. Though radical changes did not occur over night I found that my appetite for activities I once enjoyed began to wane—they were not evil activities, but for me they were a hindrance to having a pure heart. As well, I realized that the more that I desired holiness the greater the likelihood that my life choices would reflect my royal heritage.
I would like to share with you some key points that appear in Holiness, the Heart God Purifies. May I encourage you to meditate upon one a day, as well as to pray the prayer at the beginning for a minimum of thirty days? If you will expectantly do so I believe that you will find, as I did, that your life choices will reflect your royal heritage.
Holiness and sin both matter more than we can imagine.
“Holiness” is discussed in theology classes, but rarely in dinner table conversations.
The biblical concept of holiness carries with it a sense of belonging to God.
God is holy and holiness is not an option for those who belong to Him.
Grace gives us the desire and the power to be holy.
How would you fare if someone were to go through the record of your life?
Holiness and joy are inseparable companions.
To be holy is to be clean, to be free from the weight and the burden of sin.
He is the standard for your holiness, and He is the source of your holiness.
Your holiness is God’s supreme purpose for your life.
Are you living like a saint?
Only those who have holy hearts and lives can draw near to God.
How much attention and effort are you devoting to preparing for the move to your eternal home?
What others most need is to see in you a reflection of what God is like.
It is your created purpose and your ultimate destiny to be holy.
What makes all sin so heinous and grievous is that it is against God.
The more ground you concede to sin, the more you dull your capacity for truth.
Every unconfessed sin is a seed that will produce a multiplied harvest.
From start to finish, the pathway of holiness is a life of faith.
Holiness requires intensity and intentionality.
Why are we so prone to defend choices that take us right to the edge of sin?
How serious are you about wanting to be pure?
Sin is a toxin that contaminates to the core of the human soul.
Your progress in holiness will never exceed your relationship with the Word of God.
Confessing our sin to other believers can be a powerful means of receiving God’s grace.
No believer can afford to be without consistent, day in, day out accountability with other believers.
Is what’s on the outside the same as what’s on the inside?
The World is not impressed with a religious version of itself.
God simply won’t make Himself at home in an unholy place.2
