Jesus
calls us to be both holy and loving. We need both - holiness and love.
We're not to be hypocrites who've given up on holiness. We're not to be
content with keeping up appearances. We're to seek holiness of heart.
This is the heart of holiness. We're not to be hypocrites who show no
love for other people. How can we have much love for God if we don't
have much love for other people? A life that's centred on ourselves is
very different from a life that's centred on Christ. A life that's being
shaped by Christ's love will be a life of receiving His love and
sharing His love. He's teaching us how much He loves us. He's helping us
to show His love to other people.
We read about Elijah in his high-points of strength - the triumph over the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:36-39) - and his low-points of weakness - he is ready to give up: “I’ve had enough now, Lord” (1 Kings 19:4). How did Elijah get into such a mess? He forgot this: “The Lord’s power was on Elijah” (1 Kings 18:46). In all life’s ups and downs, we must hold on to this: The Lord has sent His Spirit of power to live in us (2 Timothy 1:7). How are we to live in the power of the Spirit? We need to feed on the Word of God and drink in the Word of God (1 Kings 17:4). We need to pray that the Lord will send His showers of blessing (1 Kings 17:14). We are to live our life “according to the Word of the Lord” (1 Kings 17:16). For our life of faith to be strong in the Lord, we need to listen attentively to the preaching of God’s Word (1 Kings 17:24).
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