Holiness: A Listening Heart

By Carin LeRoy –

Ernest Hemingway once said, “I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” Although his life ended in tragedy, as a journalist he recognized the importance of a skill that many of us lack.

Sometimes when my family speaks to me, I realize I didn’t hear what they said because I wasn’t paying attention. How many of us go through seminars, meetings and church services and then can’t remember all that was said because we weren’t engaged mentally? Listening is a skill we all need to improve.

As we continue to learn what a holy life is, another aspect is having a heart that desires to know more and a willingness to listen to God’s instruction. In Luke 10, Mary is a great example of a listening heart. While Jesus was visiting at their home, she chose to sit and listen to Him speak. Martha, on the other hand, was too busy to stop her activity and spend time with Him. She missed out on what God was teaching because she was “too busy.”

How many times do we do the same? Even though Martha was doing good (fixing food for all the guests), God still said, “Mary has chosen what is better.” Mary placed importance on spending time with God. Mary listened because Jesus was speaking, and she knew to listen.

Having a listening heart means we have a desire to learn from and obey God. He wants the best for us but cannot give it if we are distracted or placing more importance on other things

Proverbs 1 says, “whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease without fear of harm.” Remember, God has our best interest in mind if we can develop a heart that listens.

PRAYER: Thank You that Your words are truth for my life. Give me a willing and focused heart to hear You when you speak.

“How blessed are those whose actions are blameless, who obey the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe his rules, and seek him with all their heart, who, moreover, do no wrong,
but follow in his footsteps. You demand that your precepts be carefully kept. If only I were predisposed to keep your statutes! Then I would not be ashamed, if I were focused on all your commands” (Psalm 119: 1-6 NET).

Two Better Than One

By Carin LeRoy –

Living in the tropics can have its challenges. When my husband and I lived there, we endured heat that hovered each day in the high 90s in the shade, with an equally high humidity. After awhile, we adjusted to the extreme temperature. If the thermometer dropped into the 70s, I’d run to put on a sweater.

On one of our vacations, we went to the highlands area to enjoy different scenery and a cooler climate. Once we settled in, the mountain town had a cold snap. (By “cold,” I mean temperatures in the 40s-50s!). The change in temperature shocked our system. Since we weren’t equipped with clothes to keep us warm, we put on several layers and crawled in the twin beds of our rented room. Neither of us could stay warm that night, so we ended up keeping each other warm by squeezing into the same bed. My husband’s feet were so cold, he even slept with his shoes on!That is a night neither of us will forget as we shivered through the night.

Ecclesiastes 4:11 says, “if two lie down together, they will keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?” That night we experienced the literal interpretation of that verse. This passage in Ecclesiastes starts out by saying that “two are better than one.” This simple principle applies to all areas of life. The church, the body of Christ, is a perfect example of God’s expectations for His people. We are not meant to exist alone, but together. God creates us to live in community.

The first thing God did for Adam was to create Eve – a help mate and companion. When Christ used the disciples to build the early church, they often traveled in pairs on their missionary journeys. We may feel we can tackle something on our own, but there are times we might accomplish much more for the Lord by working together with others. Even the apostle Paul requested Mark’s help to come out and assist him in the work (II Timothy 4:11).

Remember that God created the body of Christ for our benefit and for His glory. Let’s learn to utilize each other’s strengths and rely on one another.

PRAYER: Lord, thank You that you have created us to live in community. Help me to be sensitive to know when others need my help. Give me a willingness to rely on others and utilize their strength when I need it.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up! But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? Though one be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easy broken,” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NIV).

Holiness: A Clean Heart

By Carin LeRoy –

When I have company visit my home, I do my best to clean to make sure that things are dusted, scrubbed and picked up. I wouldn’t want them to think that I’m a dirty housekeeper, so I want to present my home the best I can when they arrive at my door. If guests are staying for the night, I give them washed sheets on their bed and a fresh towel. After all, would we give our visitors dirty bed sheets and a used towel? Of course not.

This brings us to another aspect of what it means to live a holy life. Just as we want our homes to be presentable and clean when guests arrive, we should also want our hearts and lives to be clean before God. We strive to confess our sins and keep our lives free from sinful habits. As Dr. Robert D. Luginbill says, “It is still possible for our feet to pick up a bit of dirt as we walk about in the devil’s world. God has given us the status of ‘holy people,’ but we are still imperfect and capable of sin.” It’s important that we don’t look lightly at our personal behavior and the sin patterns that crop up in our lives. Not only do we confess them before God, but we repent. Confession brings forgiveness, but repentance means we turn away from those sins by not allowing them to become a habit in our lives (Acts 3: 19,20).

“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me” (Psalm 51: 10 NLT).

David recognized his sinfulness and asked God to create something new within his heart. He knew he was helpless on his own, and it would take God’s power within him to live a holy life. He desired to honor God but saw the weakness in his own soul. We all fail, like David, and have sins that haunt us. Yet God still desires for His children to live a life set apart and holy. God sees our hearts. Are we confessing our failures and repenting of the sins that grip us? If not, then let’s strive to learn like David what it means to have a clean heart before God.

PRAYER: Lord, create within me a clean heart. Give me a steady and loyal spirit that follows after You. Help me to repent from the sins that desire to take hold of my life.

“I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you; I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations” (Ezekiel 36:26 NET).

Holiness: A Saturated Heart

By Carin LeRoy –

Hudson Taylor, a missionary to China in the mid-late 1800s, is known for the impact that he made in reaching the Chinese people with the gospel. He is considered one of the greatest missionaries. As we look at his zeal to reach people in a cross-cultural context, we see some of the decisions that gave him the ability to have great influence on a culture that mistrusted a foreigner. Although he received much criticism from the missionary community, he began to dress in traditional clothing, wear his hair in the customary queue (or braid), and learn the culture and customs. He learned the language so well that when speaking, others could not tell he was a foreigner. This gave him great ability to mingle and move around to share the gospel. He immersed himself in the culture in order to look, speak and act like the Chinese.

As we continue to look at holiness in the life of the believer, another aspect that marks a holy life is knowing and obeying God’s word. As Christians, we need to be so saturated in God’s word that we intuitively understand its application to life’s situations. In doing so, our lives become so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that we know the right choice. In Scripture we read, “I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against you…I rejoice in following Your statues as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on Your precepts and consider Your ways. I delight in Your decrees; I will not neglect Your word” (Psalm 119: 11, 14-16 NET).

Knowledge and obedience go together as we seek to follow God. Not only do we know what His word says about behavior, lifestyle choices and attitudes, but we obey it. Holiness means we have a heart that is saturated with God’s word in order to look, speak and act like He desires. We understand God’s desires and act upon that knowledge. Because we are immersed in His word, we develop a sensitivity to the Lord and a strength that makes it easier to obey. Just as Hudson Taylor immersed himself in Chinese culture to be identified with them, we need to endeavor to be identified solely with Christ. Let’s learn what it means to have a heart that is saturated with the knowledge of God’s word and a willingness to obey it.

PRAYER: Lord, give me a desire to be saturated in Your word so that I learn what it means to live a life of holiness. Help me to abide in Your word, respond with sensitivity to Your Holy Spirit, and strive to live a life of obedience.

QUOTE: “It is time for us Christians, to face up to our responsibility for holiness. Too often we say we are “defeated” by this or that sin. No, we are not defeated; we are simply disobedient. It might be well if we stopped using the terms victory and defeat to describe our progress in holiness. Rather we should use the terms obedience and disobedience” (Jerry Bridges).

Too Tired to Budge

By Carin LeRoy –

Do you ever feel like life is too busy? I do. When we take on more than we should, life seems to pass by in a blur of activity and busyness. At the end of a day, we’re stressed and exhausted.

The Bible gives a great example of this in Exodus 18. When Moses was leading the Israelites, he served as judge for the people each day settling disputes from morning until evening. I’m sure when his day was finished, he felt much like we do at the end of our hectic days – too tired to budge.

When his father-in-law, Jethro, came for a visit and observed his long days, he said, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone,” (Exodus 18: 17,18 NIV). Jethro then suggested that Moses should train and appoint godly leaders to help him do the work. Moses saw the wisdom in Jethro’s advice and listened to him. By doing so, his own load lightened.

Just as Jethro observed Moses’ overload of work, do we have friends or family that think our days are too full of activity? Do they advise us to reduce the stress and busyness in our lives? If so, then maybe we need to take their advice to slow down and evaluate how to change our schedule to lessen our own workload. There’s nothing “spiritual” about having a to-do list that goes from morning until evening. Maybe we need to take the advice of others, like Moses. Slowing down, delegating or eliminating might just be the right thing to do.

PRAYER: Lord, if I need to lighten my workload, please give me wisdom to know what I need to eliminate from my schedule. Give me a heart, like Moses, to listen to the wisdom of others that desire to speak truth into my life.

“Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves” (Exodus 18: 24-26 NIV).

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