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Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. – Psalm 29:2
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us; yes, the work of our hands establish Thou it.- Psalm 90:17
When we worship the Lord, He has led me to see that He wants us to focus on who He is. When we focus on His attributes in worship; His holiness, purity, mercy, lovingkindness, compassion and every other virtue that His word describes Him as having, then just maybe we may begin to desire to be like our heavenly Father and want Him to create those attributes in ourselves.
Nothing glorifies and pleases God more than when His children exhibit the qualities of His character. And that character is also exemplified in our Messiah Jesus who is the image of God. The selflessness that Jesus exhibited when He willingly submitted to a horrific death on our behalf, is the ultimate reflection of God’s perfection.
There is a tremendous freedom when the grip of self is released from our souls.
I remember a conversation I overheard in a restaurant years ago. A joyful looking man was talking with a solemn middle-aged Christian couple. He was also a Christian, and as he spoke to them his face radiated with exuberant joy. He was explaining to them what a blessing it was to be dead to self and alive to Christ. It was wonderful listening to him. Then to my surprise, the couple he had been sharing all this with began to argue with him. I watched them as they spoke in defense of "self." They both looked bound up and miserable. I compared their countenances with the Happy Dead Man. To me, he didn't have to say another word to defend his position. I looked at the joy and peace that was obviously radiating from the Christ that was so alive in his being, and he made me long to be just as dead and alive as he was.
He had learned the truth of the Christian life; when self is made subordinate to God’s Spirit, peace, freedom and God’s holy fruits of the Spirit are given space to reign in the soul.
We will never obtain our soul’s perfection in this life, but it is the goal of a disciple of Christ to exercise ourselves toward that objective. The Apostle Paul said, in Philippians 3:14 -“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Nothing is holier in this life than a soul that has stripped itself from its own desire and replaced it with a desire for more of the Lord.
When we are made aware of the beauty of the lord and desire those virtues to beautify our beings, then that is when we are truly worshipping God in the beauty of holiness. He beautifies us with those virtues and the works of our hands that He blesses are works that are motivated by what He has implanted within us and He is glorified.
Copyright 2023 by H. D. Shively
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