Infuriating Subtleties

No, this post is not about the nature of how married women communicate to their husbands (although that would work with this title also).   This is about how the enemy tries to rob me blind.

I've made no secret that fear is the number one tactic that the enemy has used to keep me bound throughout my  life.  God has been revealing to me some of the other things that Satan does to keep me from seeing the truth by twisting it up.  The times in my life when I have decided to push past the fear, invariably I have become overwhelmed.  It's not the things that I have been asked to let go of that are the hard part, it's always by new ways of life that I know I need to incorporate to be a resident in the kingdom of holiness that seem unattainable.  After all, God did say that without holiness no one would see Him (Hebrews 12:14).

As I was again feeling this overwhelming wave of pressure during a day of failures on my job, God spoke to me about the lie being used to keep me thinking that I would never attain His will.  He said, "Michael, you are making the same mistake that you always make when you decide to follow Me with all your heart.  You are confusing holiness with perfection.  They are not the same thing."

So what is holiness then?  If it's not doing everything right, then I have no idea what holiness is.

Yeah, I know that it means "set apart,"  but how does that affect us in terms of lifestyle and choice?.  It can't possibly mean to only do things that others don't do.  Set apart to what?

To whatever God asks, commands, or otherwise communicates to us in secret.  We can't work on every thing that is wrong with our hearts' motives all at once, so we accept our weaknesses until God is pleased to take them from us and obey despite our imperfections.

Pursue holiness with all you have.  Leave perfection for the suckers.  Jesus was already perfect for us and we get all the benefits of His perfection just by believing in Him.  Progressing in personal holiness is the natural result of God revealing His truth to us and setting us free, which is completely up to Him how He does that.  We set ourselves up for this by asking Him for it and following Him where He calls us.  Are you ready to go wherever He calls and leave behind everything else?