Photo by Jenny Venturo
Revelation 4
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:8.
Meditating on the holiness of God is crucial for your growth as a Christian. You may already know that meditating on God’s character is important, but why do I place such a great emphasis on God’s holiness? You see, understanding God’s holiness helps us avoid several types of wrong thinking and drives us toward obedience. The fact that God is holy means that He is also just and must punish sin, and this truth helps us to understand the seriousness of sin in our own lives. In addition, God’s holiness and justice remind us that, as Christians and therefore missionaries, we are responsible for showing people how impossible it is to measure up to God’s righteous standard. We also responsible for warning people that God’s just punishment for sin is eternal death in Hell (Romans 6:23; II Thessalonians 1:8-9; Revelation 21:8).
What does “holy” mean? It’s pretty tough to define since it has such a rich, deep meaning. If we boil the word down to its dictionary definition, we see that it basically means “separate from.” Isaiah 55:8-9 helps us understand this better. God says “‘[M]y thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” So, although we are like God in many ways because we have been created “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:27), we are also very different from Him. He is beyond us, beyond our comprehension, beyond our grasp. Out of our reach. Above us. Holy.
Practically speaking, how is God “beyond us”? Think of those words associated with God that carry the idea of “all”—all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipresent. Think also of those words that contain a negative aspect—God never breaks His promises, He never changes, He has absolutely no sin. Are you any of those things? How else is God beyond you as an individual?
The more time you spend saying “wow” to God, the less time you will have to say “yes” to your flesh. Think about God’s holiness for two or three minutes when you lie down for bed tonight.
How much time do you spend every day meditating on God’s character? What about His holiness specifically? How can meditating on God’s holiness keep you from sin in your own life and help you to obey the Great Commission (see Matthew 28:18-20)?
Continue this study here.
Read the whole study here.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Used by permission. All rights reserved.