Do We Live Up To Our Name?

Most Christians know that in the Bible we are called saints.

What I didn’t know though, was that the word saint is the same Greek word as is used for ‘holy’ – it is the first word in ‘Holy Spirit’ and in ‘holy city’ when it is describing Jerusalem.

So the name that we are given actually means holy! And of course because of Christ having died for us we have been made holy in the sight of God if we are Christians, but practically do we live up to that?

 It gives more meaning to the prayer that Paul prays for the Colossians to walk worthy of their calling. Our calling is to be holy, to be set apart to God, to be separated from sin, to be sanctified, consecrated.

Frances Ridley Havergal says this: ‘Consecration is not a religiously selfish thing. If it sinks into that, it ceases to be consecration. We want our lives kept, not that we may feel happy, and be saved the distress consequent on wandering, and get the power of God and man, and all the other privileges linked with it. We shall have all this, because the lower is included in the higher; but our true aim, if the love of Christ constrains us, will be far beyond this. 

Not for ‘me’ at all, but ‘for Jesus;’ not for my safety, but for His glory; not for my comfort, but for His joy; not that I may find rest, but that He may see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied! 

Yes for Him I want to be kept. Kept for His sake; kept for His use; kept to be His witness; kept for His joy! Kept for Him, that in me He may show forth some tiny sparkle of His light and beauty; kept to do His will and His work in His own way; kept, it may be, to suffer for His sake; kept for Him, that He may do just what seems to Him good with me; kept, so that no other lord shall have any more dominion over me, but that Jesus shall have all there is to have… 

Is not this, O you who love the Lord – is this not worth living for, worth asking for, worth trusting for? This is consecration and I cannot tell you the blessedness of it.’

From her book, ‘Kept for the Master’s Use’

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