"Love Me For My Holy"

If there's anything in life about which we typically love to lament, it's when we find that someone loves us, but not for the entirety of who we are ---our strengths and weaknesses, our quirks, and our flaws. It's when the idea of you, or me, stirs interest, excites, and draws someone close for a moment, but as the relationship grows in intimacy, "who you turned out to be," isn't exactly who they had in mind. That maybe, who you are - or have been all along - is now a bit off-putting.

The relationship stalls. It ceases to grow... or maybe it ends. 

I see posts about it all the time.

Like. Like. Like...

And I agree sometimes, I do..
But I can't help but liken this to our relationship with God.









Only because I think He wants to be loved for more than the obvious. I think He wants to be adored for more reasons than because He first loved us. I think He wants us to embrace more than His sufficient, irrational grace -- extend our gratitude for more than His provision and protection.  I think He wants us to live in awe of so much more than His inexplicable mercies. I think He wants to be sought out for more than His timing when it comes to our dreams and His orchestration. I believe He wants to be loved for His core.

 "Love Me for my Holy..."

Because He loves us SO much, and would love to be LOVED wholly, in return.

 

And there's so much room for us to acknowledge the more..

His otherness.
His GOODness.
His GOD - ness.
His being set apart.
His DIFFERENCE from all things created. His... creation of ALL things.
His wisdom, and knowledge. His way...

Do we love Him for His HOLY?

And how about, for instance, the very thing that makes Him God - and us, in need of a Savior..?

His Righteousness.
.... Literally... His being RIGHT, all the time.

I'm afraid far too often we get stuck at loving Him for His love... we stop there.

Yes, love drove Christ to the cross and love kept Him there...but it was His holiness that made the cross worth the suffering and sacrifice. It was His holiness that qualified Him to pay the price.  
How could He be God if not for His ability to do what we couldn't? ...If not for His ability to conquer and have victory over sin without ever even having to be delivered?

Without His HOLINESS, His death would have accomplished nothing at all.

Without His Righteousness, our lives would be a mess. 

It's His holiness that compels me to love Him for more than His love. 

We MUST love His Holy. We NEED His Holy.

"As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.”
You call out to God for help and He helps—He’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, He’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living.
 Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know."

1 Peter 1:14-19 (MSG) 

If He is indeed our Father, we cannot just love "the idea of Him," choosing which parts of who He
is we'd like to acknowledge today and appreciate tomorrow.
  
I don't want to live life having occasional run-ins with His way. I don't want His characteristics to be an afterthought when I consider how I treat other people. I don't want to LOVE the concept of having a home in heaven, but lack the maturity and commitment to be His where it counts -- right here, right now in all of life's inconsistencies and moments of stretching.
                    
It's so easy to over-esteem what the world values - to, over-calculate the worth of what it looks like to have it all together without actually having the whole of who we are, settled in Him.  This, I know. It's so easy to want to be called and chosen, forgiven, conquering, overcoming, and victorious...to want all of His benefits and none of His discipline. This, I know. It's so easy, to miss the mark clinging to every other convenient, accommodating characteristic of our Father. And so easy, still, to lose our souls, chasing the wind --- chasing the carnal, chasing non-factors. PROVEN. In my life. I know what it's like to have a hard time embracing holiness. We all do - we're human.
Everyday we drop the ball somehow, but I must ask the question...

...Is it easy to be like Him..to be like my Father?

"Love Me for My Holy," He says.
"And whatever you love about me, you'll inevitably imitate."

HOLY is exactly what we'll cherish if we ever want to look like our Father..

 

..if we ever want to enjoy the life He intended us to live.

It's understanding God's ever-present.. everywhere, and would love to play a huge part in our decision making.

Holiness, is life made beautiful because we practice kindness, follow peace, choose LOVE, and have consideration for others. It's having consideration for ourselves --  guarding our hearts and not casting our pearls to those who were never fit to handle them. It's not hurting others if by chance, they show up somewhere along our life's path...it's doing justice, choosing wisdom and walking humbly with our God.

   

I'm convinced - that the more we love His holiness, and the more we open our lives to His way, the more room we give to every flower that could blossom in the garden of His perfect will.

And please know ... I don't speak as my own best example of holiness -- that's for sure. But I am a daughter - who's learning daily, and still, re-learning... to love God for all of who He is. Not just what's easy to celebrate; not just what's easy to imitate.

I have learned to cherish what challenges and changes me.

It's this heightened awareness of His Holiness, our necessary, that can only work to our benefit. It's our intentional attention to His nature that will show us our depravity. It calls us higher... It calls us closer... I think we'll fear it less, if we love it more. 

Are you going to land atop the mountain of perfection within the next 24 hours?
Probably not... Have I? Nope.  But, you will look more like your Father.. sooner than later:)

My prayer is that the posture of our hearts be fixed on loving God for His HOLY. We love Him for His love. We love Him for His grace. Let's love something else. Let's love it more.

 And oh, there's so much beauty in His holiness...

#LoveMeforMyHoly

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QUOTE

"It's the absence of holiness that has made us so restless and so miserable for so long. It's the substitution of other things that have only caused grief, and guilt, and a lack of fulfillment, and constant searching. If the holiness of God could only fractionally displace our constant carnality, oh, the joy that would flood our souls! Holiness is God, giving to us ---  Himself."  

- James MacDonald.

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"Worship the LORD in the beauty of His holiness; tremble before him, all the earth."
Psalm 96:9


"Walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you unto His own kingdom and glory"

1 Thessalonians 2:12


"Search me, Oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting"
Psalm 139: 23 

"For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’"

Acts 18:28