O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth. Psalm 96:9

It’s gardening season. And I love it. I’m trying to completely commit myself to having beautiful flowers everywhere and growing a garden for fresh and canned veggies. My aunt and uncle, whose home I now live in, always had beautiful flowers on their patio, and in their gazebo, and it has long been a dream of mine to have the place looking as good as it used to when they were both alive and in good health. I remember being in absolute awe of her flowers, and while, I still have quite a bit of work to do to get it back to its former glory, I continue to work toward that goal.

This morning as I was doing my normal flip through The Psalms a phrase caught my eye: “worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness” Hmm… “beauty of holiness”, the phrase itself is beautiful. But, it is also a command. In fact, the whole 96th chapter of Psalms is instructional. Our very lives are to be a witness of what God can do in the life of man. We should be living a life that is so set apart, and so obviously different than the world that just being in our presence makes a sinner aware that ‘something’ is different about us. Our being should be so infused with the Holy Spirit that His essence radiates from us. Have you ever been with someone like that? Most of us can remember an old saint whose entire life was wrapped up in the things of God and being with them was like stepping into the presence of the Father… I think that’s what He calls us to be.

Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy. Leviticus 19:2

What is Holiness? Holiness according to Merriam Webster is: the quality or state of being holy. To be holy, means to be set apart, dedicated to, or focused wholly on the things of God. Obviously, we can never do this in perfection, but we can strive to that end. I think the key to working toward living a holy life is simple… Ask Him. Ask Him to show you where you are falling short, where you could do better. When a prayer is spoken, really meant whole-heartedly, and in line with what He asks of us in the scripture, He is faithful. The next step is to be open to the answers to that prayer, because they may not be what you expect, or what you want to hear.

Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 29:2

When we spend time understanding the Word, both in what it asks of us and who it tells us He is, it becomes far easier to desire a holy life. He is worthy! He is our LORD, our deliverer, our healer, our protector… when you go through and realize Who it is we serve: we could give every second of our lives to Him and still never come close to giving Him enough praise. But, when we worship Him from a life that is striving to live in holiness, it’s a beautiful thing. He meets with us and fills us in a way that we are incapable of understanding when our lives are caught up in the things of this world.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

How amazing is it that the God of eternity deigns to dwell in these temporal bodies! As Christians with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it behooves us to live a life worthy of His calling. We have been given a gift so precious, and yet, we tend to set it aside like a forgotten Christmas gift. Imagine our surprise, when we pull it out and dust it off to find that it is a priceless treasure that we could have been enjoying all along. I know that was my experience. Here I had a gift of immeasurable beauty and value, and I ignored it for years, caught up in the world, focused on the many useless idols I had created for myself. There will never be a moment that I am not thankful to my Saviour for waking me up to what I was missing.

It’s all about Him. He’s the whole reason we have a chance in this world. His perfection has given us a way to the Father, and only through Him do we have any righteousness. He is the firstfruit of what we will receive in the end. His conquering of the grave made a way for us to experience eternity in Heaven. If we are to truly be in Him, we should reflect what He is as much as we can in these carnal bodies.

For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. Romans 11:16

We are nothing but earthen vessels. But we’re filled with the glorious Holy Spirit. It’s up to us to let Him begin to make us into what He desires us to be. If we allow the master to mold us into exactly what He’d have us be, He will do His perfect work in our lives and create a beauty that is beyond our imagination. In order to do that we have to cultivate the relationship that we have with Him. Open His Word, spend time in prayer, and in worship with our brothers and sisters. How does your garden grow? Are you spending time with Him? Are you seeking Him in His Word? Cultivating beauty in our Christian lives is simple, if we just look to Him.