Study Overview: Last week, we talked about holiness beginning with repentance. This week we will talk about revelation.
Key Point of Struggle: Many of us struggle with thinking we will never live a holy life.
Key Proof of Comfort: There is great comfort in knowing holiness has nothing to do with us and everything to do with Christ. (See 2 Timothy 1:9)
In order to come to a place of repentance, we must experience revelation. There’s no getting around it. Our eyes open to who Jesus is and it brings us to a place of needing Him more than we’ve ever needed anything or anyone before. However, it should never stop there. We need ongoing, active revelation to make our hearts pliable.
God never stops making Himself known to us. I find fresh revelation happens in small moments when I’m not expecting it. However, in my life, I know there are times I miss Him because I’m waiting for big miracles. Because of this, I end up completely unaware of how He slowly knits miracles together one small piece at a time. In fact, the biggest miracle He’s orchestrating, daily, is the molding of my heart. I tend to forget that my whole life is a miracle. And, if you’re wondering, so is yours!
Like most of us, I look in the mirror and see all the things I would love to fix about myself. But that’s just the outside of me. As hard as ageing is, I’m much more concerned about what’s going on inside from a spiritual perspective. I’m constantly messing up, and for some reason, Jesus still uses my life time-and-time-again. I am fully aware of how much Jesus means to me, but each and every day I need fresh revelation to understand what I mean to Him. I’m pretty sure there are a lot of us who feel the same.
Here’s the thing about holiness: It’s not only important to have revelation about who Jesus is to us; we must also have a revelation about who we are to Him. It is then our hearts are molded to be more and more like Him. We need revelation of His love for us so that we can share with others how much He loves them. We can’t expect others to accept how much Jesus loves them if we can’t accept it ourselves. How often do we hold ourselves back because we think we aren’t worthy to do that “big thing” he’s been calling us to do? When will we ever learn that it’s not about us?
There’s no doubt that we must be aware and willing to work on our heart issues. However, when we work on our issues through a lens of love, from God’s perspective, instead of self-loathing from our human perspective, the process leads to holy transformation. When we focus on what He wants and what He sees, we quickly readjust our thinking and before we know it, our eyes aren’t on ourselves at all.
In our Word for Your Weekend Video I said holiness means to be set apart. God set us apart to reveal His love for us through the gift of grace. Once we understand that, we can begin living the great commission with new purpose.
He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.
-2 Timothy 1:9 (N.I.V.)
There’s nothing we’ve done to deserve Christ, and yet He died for us anyway. There is no greater love. If we are ever going to live a holy life of purpose, we must understand that He created a place for us here and loves us through each and every part of who we are. He sees who we are created to become. He looks through a lens of deep love. It’s sacred.
This Friday on #WordforYourWeekend subscriber only content, we will talk about Eve’s story, and grace in the garden.
Love,
Jennifer
PS: I wrote a new article for iBelieve. You can read it here!
