Holiness or Happiness

Posted on Jul 12, 2018 in Devotions, pastors pen |

 

What is it that you are living for? What do you personally pursue each day?

This week I have been thinking about the connection between holiness and happiness. Can I have both? It seems to me that if my primary pursuit is happiness that I will not necessarily experience holiness. My heart, and if you are to be honest, your heart is selfish. When I pursue happiness I am self-centered and self-seeking.

What if I pursue holiness? When I determine to pursue holiness, or the things of God, I have a much better chance of achieving peace in my life. If I live my life in the authentic pursuit of God, holiness, I will find my joy and contentment in Him and eternal things that truly last.

 
How do I achieve holiness? Well, I need to share briefly the difference between positional holiness and personal holiness.
 
Positional holiness is what God imparts to us when we become His children. The theological term for this is justification. We must start with positional holiness and place of faith in the completed work of Jesus on the cross. Believe it! Receive it!
 
It is God’s free gift to you that you don’t deserve and can never earn.
 
Personal holiness is the outworking and fruit of positional holiness, evidenced in the way we think and live. The theological term for this is sanctification.   Personal holiness is a life long struggle that we live with every day. How do I live in this world and not get sucked in and polluted physically and spiritually? It is tough!
 
James puts it this way; Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27
 

God is interested in our holiness not our happiness. I would take it a step farther and say that God wants us to experience joy that is rooted in Him and Him alone. The only way we experience positional holiness is by receiving Christ as your personal Savior.  How do I do this? It is not complicated. Romans 10 put it this way: 9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. Romans 10:9-10

 

The day I chose to trust Christ as my Savior was the greatest day of my life. I had His peace; His positional holiness because of what Jesus had done for me on the cross.
 

It is a daily struggle to keep Christ first in all I do and I don’t always get it right. I do know that I am His and He is mine and that gives me His peace and joy!

PB

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