Being In Harmony With God

May 31, 2016

Being In Harmony With God

But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.

Philippians 3:12b

John Wesley urged his pastors to always have the mind-set that they were ‘going on to perfection,” and that phrase is still used today when new pastors are ordained in the United Methodist Church. Wesley’s intention was rooted in his understanding of the Biblical word, holiness. John Wesley loved the word holiness. He talked about scriptural holiness, holiness of the heart and holiness of life. Many people mistakenly think holiness has to do with rigid laws, or rules, which through obedience make a person holy. Not so; holiness is a state of being. As Christians, we know that our state of being, our acceptance by God, comes as a gift of God’s grace, through faith in Jesus. The definition that best fits John Wesley’s use of the word holiness is a state of being in harmony with God.

In the context of today’s passage, because we have holiness of heart as a gift of God’s grace, we, like Paul, are pressing on to make what is true in our heart, true in our way of life. Thus our mission in life is seeking the life in Christ (our holiness of heart) as our way of life (holiness of life). Some of Wesley’s contemporaries thought he was wrong. They believed in holiness of heart, but thought achieving holiness of life was impossible. However, Wesley understood that God is the Lord of the impossible and what is impossible for us, is possible for God. Because I serve the Lord of the impossible, I am always close to this eternal truth:

For God is working in you,

giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Philippians 2:13

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.