Remember how Beautiful and Awesome you are!
Leviticus chapter 22.
The Lord seems to be repeating himself in order to ensure that the Israelites and priests do exactly what they're told so that they don't defile themselves and therefore don't defile any offerings made before the Lord. I get a flashback of my parents saying, “How many times do I have to tell you not to slam the door?” “How many times do I have to tell you to take the garbage out?”
There are definitely times my parents repeated themselves in hopes of getting me to do what needed to be done. They wanted me to be responsible or be a good kid, and yes to be proud of me, especially in public. Now as a parent this all makes sense to me. I understand now where they're coming from. That's with our parents. What about God repeating himself? Why does he?
God wants us to be responsible. He wants us to be good kids. But more importantly, and it can't be stressed enough, he wants us to be holy!! God is Holy therefore he says we must be holy! He repeats Himself because anything less than holy cannot be in the presence of God. At some point we have to capture this fact so that we are motivated to make good decisions to be holy. Yes, we will mess up, but hopefully our desire to be holy increases and our desire to disobey God decreases. Let me stress again how important it is to know God is able to help us overcome repeated sins or addictions. It isn't that he wants to punish us, it's just that un-Holiness can't be in his presence. So God made a way for our sins to be forgiven and he made a way for us to have victory: in Jesus.
1. Jesus went to the cross, as you know, so that our sins could be forgiven.
2. If we have Jesus in our lives then we have his holy spirit to empower us to overcome repeated sins or addictions or struggles. The same Spirit that Rose Jesus from the dead is the same spirit that we have to transform our lives.
3. We also have the body of Christ, the church, to help come alongside us. We need that accountability partner. Churches are great to help keep us focus and that one close friend is even greater to help hold us accountable so that we are encouraged and helped to overcome problem areas.
What are your problem areas or what are you struggling with? Who have you told? Surrender daily to the Lord and ask for his help. Tell a friend of your struggling area so they can come alongside you and encourage you to get victory. Yes, they may have to help you over and over again. God may have to repeat himself again but God loves us and is patient with us and will help us. Don't give up!
I revisited 1 Peter 1:13-16 today. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
In this chapter we see like Blair said, a repeat of instructions. One of the instructions that stuck out to me what that a sacrifice brought before the Lord must be without defect or blemish. My initial thoughts were, well yeah- of course! Who would try to bring a sacrifice that was maimed, injured, blind, with warts or oozing sores? No one would do that and really think they could pull a fast one on Aaron, his sons or God… and also why would they even try it?
But that got me thinking, how often is the time I make to spend with the Lord defected? Like right now as I type this at 11:35 PM. I started reading this chapter earlier today but got distracted and here we are. Defect. Yet how much Netflix did I watch and how many times did I scroll through Facebook? Blemish. How is the life I am living being offered up to God? Full of sin (warts and sores) ? Sometimes. Will I continue to fail and bring forward defects? Maybe. But can I spend each day trying harder than the day before to be better? Absolutely. Can I work on making my defected like just a deformed one, working towards being made perfect through Christ? Instead of oozing sores, just a little stunted growth? Until one day I can bring more holiness from my words and actions and life than I ever thought I could? I pray that I work towards making my life a more perfect sacrifice for the Lord.