Rewriting the Script on Sacred Living: From ‘Holier Than Thou’ to ‘Holy Like Him’

My husband and I were talking about the word "holy" recently and its meaning. The pursuit of holiness, after our perfect Holy Father, seems to be a somewhat misunderstand or worse, distasteful, topic for many. Jesus teaches his disciples to pray to our “hallowed” or "holy" father, in this incredible group of verses (Matthew 6:9-13) commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer. 

This first few phrases have much to teach us about Who God is. By gaining a clearer picture of our Creator, we finally begin to see how to settle our lives into place rightly. After all, later Jesus would remind the crowds gathered: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). The Greek word here is hagiazō, in this case translated as "to render or acknowledge, or to be venerable or hallow."

It is deeper than giving God respect and assigning the descriptions he is worthy of. 

Jesus is showing us how to break free from the obsession we humans have with being the center of our own lives. It acknowledges God for who He is in the truest sense: sacred and totally other.

I'm well aware that in our culture the word holy gets a bad reputation, often associated with in the negative phrase "holier than thou." It's an evil twist on something that to the early Christian church would have been a gift. Namely, when we pursue holiness we're essentially learning how to be like our Father. In every healthy relationship I have seen, every child in their innocence, tries to imitate their caregivers. And it gives great delight to them when it's a good action the child imitates, doesn't it?

So it is with between our Heavenly Father and us!

I'll begin to tie up this post with wonderful quotes from two followers of Jesus and pursuers of His holiness:

Charles Spurgeon said “There can be no such thing as perfect happiness till there is perfect holiness.” 

Jon MacArthur wrote, "The two most dominant realities that captivated my heart very early in my Christian experience were the authority of Scripture and the necessity of holiness."

I want to dive into so much more, but I want to invite you all dig into this verse mapping plan with our wonderful teachers on our Facebook community. For that deeper dive into the Lord's Prayer and free verse mapping plan, please check out our unique, free and private Facebook community linked here: The James Method Project- Committed to Drawing Near