Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
I want to start by looking at the word holy, as I think sometimes it can be a little too big or abstract. There's a lot going on with this word, but if you strip it all the way back, three easy words to remember are: sacred, set apart, and different. When you look at what God intends for holiness to be, He intends for it to be different than anything else you see around you.
God's Call to Be Different
The people of Israel in Scripture were intended to be different. They dedicated themselves to God, and God—in a covenant relationship—dedicated Himself to them, which meant there's nothing that can change His love for His people. And He asks that His people be different than the world. I think that could be a testimony to what we're called to as followers of Jesus, that we look different as well. God treated them and loved them in a way that set them apart.
God loved them so much that He gave them holidays. He gave them vacation days to keep them focused on Him. They came out of slavery, so He gave them holidays to remember the freedom that they had from slavery. The next thing was Sabbath. It's a day of rest. No other culture practiced this, but God rested on the seventh day. He wanted His people to remember that it was important to rest as well. This one gets me a little bit—He even gave them a specific menu. He said, these are the foods you can eat and can't eat. The rest of the world ate everything and anything under the sun. But God was so dedicated to keeping His people holy, He gave them a specific menu.
When Holy Becomes Habit
They then, though, took this as law. What started out as holy became a habit. What started out as dedication and love and remembrance of the Lord turned into something without heart. When you look at the festivals and the vacation days God gave to them, they turned them into legal requirements. When you look at the Sabbath day, the day of rest, they tried figuring out how many different things they could do to come right up to the line without crossing it. The menu—later on down the road, when Gentiles, people who weren't Jews, started wanting to become Christians, that was an impassable line. If you didn't eat these foods, then you can't be a Christian.
What started out as holy became a habit and ultimately kept people from seeing the goodness of God. What we need to remember in our walk with Jesus is that we don't allow the holy things of God to become habits. When we add the heart back to a habit, it becomes a discipline.
From Habit to Discipline
The beautiful thing about discipline and the word disciple is they share a root word. I think there's nothing better for us as disciples of Jesus than to include our hearts in the things that are holy, so that Jesus's words are true for us. Earlier in the Scripture it says that His holy ones are in His hands. Jesus actually mentioned something about this later on down the road. He's talking to His disciples and He says, my sheep belong to me. He says, no one can snatch them out of my hands.
If you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus, you've given yourself to Him. Remember: Let your heart come through your habits, turning them into disciplines so that you can be a Holy One of God.
