We sing a song every now and then called Take Time to Be Holy. A good song depending on who you talk to, some aren't in favor of it. However, we sing the song, but do we do we ask the question? How? How do I take time to be holy? What's involved with taking time to be holy? We're going to spend a few moments, hopefully, answering that particular question.
8 Tips for How to Take Time to be Holy
The Apostle Peter had a few things to say about holiness and how we ought to live in a holy manner.
"Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." — 1 Peter 1:16
Holiness is not a suggestion. Holiness is not if you have time in your Christian life, it would be something good to attain. No, we are called to be holy. Because Jesus is holy. God is holy. There's a whole reason behind our call to holiness.
So how do we take time to be holy? Well, we can do it in many different ways, but it all starts with our communication with God.
1) Take Time for Communication with God
- Romans 12:12
There's definite communication that needs to take place between us and God if we are going to attain this idea of holiness.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Now, some have tried to give us the impression that every single moment of our life needs to be spent, spent in prayer.
And they'll say that you know, that's something that we cannot possibly attain. Therefore, we're given this command, if you will, we can never live up to it. That's not what Paul has in mind, really, when you think about it.
But always be able to pray. Have the mindset that no matter what I'm doing, know that I can go to my Heavenly Father in prayer even if I only have just a couple of seconds.
Let God Speak to You
We also need to let God have an opportunity to speak to us.
- Hebrews 1:1, 2
We need to understand that God has things he wants to tell us. And He's prepared that for us. He's laid it out for us in His word. But if we are not looking to communicate with God. Then most likely we're not going to be anywhere near where His word is, where we're going to learn and understand what it is that God has for us to learn.
“Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone.”
We need to spend much time, as the song says, with Jesus alone.
- Matthew 6:6
Now, regardless of what this particular writer intended when he wrote this song, here's where some people that I know have issues with the entire song. And, they refuse to use it if at all possible. The idea of praying to Jesus, speaking to Jesus, talking to Jesus. But let's use a little songwriter's prerogative if you will.
Jesus is who? God.
- Matthew 28:18
We talk about how Jesus accepted worship in the first century. He did. People were allowed to bow down to Him because He is the Son of God.
We read in, in various portions of the New Testament that every aspect of worship Jesus is allowed to receive, and yet somehow we make the distinction that Jesus is not allowed to receive prayers in any way under any circumstances.
Now, before you start scratching your head and saying, why did we have this guy up here? I do not advocate for praying to Jesus in public settings like what we're in right now. We have no example of that in the New Testament. We have no instruction of that in the New Testament.
There are times for public prayers.
And we need to direct them as we read in the New Testament, and I believe that we do.
More time should be spent in Prayers offered to God in Secret
The idea of spending time with Jesus alone, you and God communicating together. I would argue that this takes place in more than the idea of offering prayers, but how often do we sit by ourselves and read the word of God?
How often do we sit by ourselves and read the words of Jesus in particular out of the gospel accounts? Spend time with God alone.
“Forgetting in nothing His blessings to seek.”
Are we seeking the blessings of God?
The song says, forgetting in nothing his blessings to seek. You know, it's okay, and it's something that we should do to seek the blessings of God in our lives. We are very good at asking the blessings of God onto other people.
It is okay to pray for blessings.
We pray for other people constantly, and we should, we're taught to do so. Did you realize it's okay to pray for blessings for yourself? It's not selfish. It's not, it's not unloving toward God. It's not something that God is going to frown upon. It is something that we should do. Absolutely.
It is acceptable to pray for God’s favor.
Pray for blessings for everyone, including ourselves. And it is acceptable to pray for God's favor, absolutely. We want that for one another. We want that for ourselves. We want that for our families. We want that for the church. And certainly, we should continue with those things.
2) Take Time for Nourishment
Secondly, so we have communication with God. We should take time for nourishment. We've kind of talked about this a little bit.
“Feed on His word”
The song says, feed us or feed on His word. Feed on the word of God.
- John 6:35
Jesus is not talking about the observance of the Lord's Supper as we took this morning. He's talking about what's going to nourish our souls throughout this life.
What's going to give our spiritual selves the sustenance that we need to pick ourselves up when times are hard, to overcome temptations when the devil is standing right in front of our path? It is the bread of life. It is the words that Jesus spoke.
- John 4:10, 14
Jesus wanted this woman at the well to focus on spiritual things, but she wasn't at that point in her life where she could focus on spiritual things.
"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up or overflowing into everlasting life." — John 4:14
Sustenance comes from the Word of God
Following the words of Jesus that we find in the gospel accounts is our bread and water if you will. It is what's going to sustain us in this life. Our sustenance comes from the word of God.
- John 6:51, 53-57
Jesus is not giving us permission for cannibalism. It is not doing, as those that believe in the Catholic faith do when they partake of what they call the Holy Communion and they come forward and, the priest gives them that loaf that when the priest transfers that loaf into their mouth it becomes Jesus's flesh. That's not what He's talking about.
He's talking about the words, that He says that is His body. That is His blood. Why? Because the words that Jesus speaks are the ones that nourish our souls. It changes our lives. It draws our attention to Him. We need to remember that nourishment comes from God.
We should desire nourishment from the Lord.
- 1 Peter 2:1, 2
We need to desire nourishment from God. If we ever stop that nourishment, we will become as those that the Hebrews writer talks about in Hebrews chapter 5.
- Hebrews 5:12-14
They were no longer able to listen because they were dull of hearing. And at which time, when they became dull of hearing, they did not have the ability to teach others anymore. And they'd been in the kingdom long enough that they should have been able to teach others the basic principles of God. But they could not. They didn't want to listen anymore. They stopped understanding that nourishment was supposed to come from God.
So take time for communication with God. Take time for nourishment from God.
3) Take Time for Guidance
We need to take time for guidance.
"Each thought and each motive beneath His, Jesus control."
- 2 Corinthians 10:5
We need to treat our bodies, our minds, and our thoughts as if we are captive by Jesus because Jesus is the one who bought our salvation. Jesus is the one who bought our ability to have our sins forgiven when He shed His blood there on the cross.
- Psalm 119:24
- Psalm 119:35
We need to be treating the Word of God as our counselor, our guide to get us through this life. Communication, nourishment, guidance.
Walk in the Light
We need to take time to walk in the light.
- 1 John 1:7
It's through following the word of God that we know the way.
- Psalm 119:105
Follow the path, follow the light. You stay in Christ and you stay where that blood is able to cleanse you in your soul.
4) Take Time for Companionship
Number four, take time for companionship.
"Make friends of God's children"
Jesus would talk to those apostles of His.
- John 15:14
But if we're holding hands with the world, if we're doing the things that the world wants us to, it's not going to be possible for us to be friends with God.
- James 4:4
- 1 John 2:15
We want to be friends with God. We want to be friends with Jesus. We want to be those that He would consider friends. We need to live in that way.
Our closest relationships need to be with fellow Christians.
Our closest relationships need to be those that are fellow Christians.
- 1 John 2:15
We need to be careful of our interactions with the things that the world calls good.
The world calls things good that God calls evil and the world calls things evil that God calls good. We need to make sure that we know the difference between the two and then make sure that we choose those things that are right.
The world needs to see our love for the brethren.
The world needs to see our interaction and our love for the brethren, as brethren and as friends, as those who are striving for the same goal.
We talk about it all the time in our prayers. We're thanking God for each one who is present with us, who has the same desire of faith, common faith, and common goal. Do we act that way toward one another? As if we're trying to get to the same place and we're trying to help one another get there? Hopefully, we do.
- Hebrews 10:24
"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." — Hebrews 10:24, 25
This is done in many ways. Of course, we normally talk about verse 25 right after we get to verse 24. And then we say, well, we need to do this by attending services like we're supposed to. That is absolutely one way that we can show our friendship and fellowship with the brethren.
But that's not the only way. We need to make sure that we do what we can when we're outside of these walls to show our brethren that we care for them and that we love them too. That's how we provoke one another to love and to good works.
5) Take Time for Compassion
We need to take time for compassion. The song says, puts it this way,
"Help those who are weak."
- Romans 15:1-3
Jesus did not come to earth and did not leave Heaven to live a better life on earth. He came to prepare the way of salvation, to bring the way of salvation for you and me so that when we leave this earth we can have a better life with Him in Heaven. Let me make sure we understand the better life is not here.
But the better life is in Heaven, where God is.
- Galatians 6:10
We need to make sure that we are demonstrating compassion. Every opportunity that we have.
6) Take Time for Tranquility
We need to take time for tranquility. The text of the song says, "Be calm in thy soul." We need to do as much as possible.
Of course, in this climate that we live in, I'm not talking about the heat outside, but the social climate, the political climate, you name it climate, is not always easy to walk around with a calm soul or a calm spirit all the time.
Calm one another
It's not easy, but we should do what we possibly can to help one another.
- Matthew 14:27
Be of good cheer. We need to do what we can to help encourage those that we come in contact with. This is one of those one of those times where we need to be a help to others. Even if we're not always in the best place ourselves. You know the old saying that that is in business fake it till you make it. Sometimes you need to be an encouragement to others even though you may not be in the best place yourself because it will be better for you in the future. And, hopefully, someone will be looking out for us.
"By looking to Jesus, like Him though shalt be..."
We call ourselves Christians, right? The term Christian stands for Christ's likeness. We should be living our lives as much as possible to become more like Christ every day.
- 2 Corinthians 3:18
- Matthew 5:16
We need to take time for tranquility in our lives. We're all busier than we want to be, but the busyness of our lives should be for the good and the glorification of God.
7) Take Time for Loyalty
We need to take time for loyalty.
"Abide in Him always,"
Abide in Jesus always.
- John 15:1-7
Over and over in that particular section, and Where Jesus is talking about himself as the vine and we are his branches. He talks about abiding, us abiding in him and him abiding in us. And this is the only way that we are going to grow both individually as Christians, and collectively as a local congregation.
The only way we're going to accomplish that is if we are loyal to Him, abiding in Him seven times. Jesus uses the word abide.
Abide: in reference to the state or condition to remain as one, not to become another or different. — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
And we ought not want to be anything more than a Christian. Because that's what God calls us to be if we simply live up to the term Christian We're going to be more like Christ every day.
- John 8:31, 32
How is it that we're going to know if we're becoming more like Christ on a daily basis? The only way we're going to know that is if we read and understand who Jesus is. How He treated people. How did He approach difficult situations in His life? What did Jesus do when temptations came knocking on His front door?
And then if we do the same things that Jesus did, by looking at the truth, we can know that we're more like Him.
8) Take Time for Preparation
Our last point for the evening, take time for preparation. The song says,
"Thou soon shall be fitted for service above."
I'm sure I don't have to inform you of this, and I hope this is nothing new that you didn't already know. This life is all about getting to a place of rest in the next life.
People ask the question, and they are legitimately asking the question, what is the purpose of this life? They see things breaking down all around them. Family units are being disintegrated into nothing. The government is taking control over certain aspects, and more and more aspects, of what seems to be their daily life, things they used to be responsible for. And they say, what's the point?
The point of this life is to get to the next world. The next life where rest truly is.
- Matthew 11:28-30
Maybe you are one here this evening who needs to take time for communication with God need to take time to be nourished by God, and need to take time for guidance from God in your life companionship with the children of God instead of those that are the children of the world. Or, one that needs to show compassion for others in their life, and have tranquility in your own spirit, loyalty to Jesus in everything that you do, and one who needs to get back to being prepared for being in a place of rest when this life is over.
Maybe you're one, who's never been obedient to God at all in the past. Now is an opportunity to begin that path to begin that walk to be more like Jesus. That's the only way we get out of this world with life waiting for us in the next.
If we can assist you in any way, please contact us so we can study with you God's plan for man's salvation.
