Taking small steps in life to establish holiness in our hearts

1 Peter 1:16, “… “Be holy, for I am holy.””

During one of the meetings, one of our leaders shared with us on how he faithfully obeys the law of the land and uses the car park coupons as it should have been. If he parks in a parking lot that requires the use of parking coupons, he would tear the coupons according to the time he parked and the period of time he will be occupying the lot. Meaning, he would not give the pretext that he started using the parking lot 10 minutes later or would he use a half an hour coupon to compensate for 2 hours of usage. Even to the point that his car is only a few steps from where he is dining.

This is hard saying and can easily be an offense to some people. A common reaction to this would be, “Please don’t act so holy and get so religious. Tearing car park coupons are small matter.”

My leader brought up one good point. It is not him trying to act holy but rather it is the holiness of God which was imparted to him the moment he became a Christian. The same thing happens to us Thereafter God leave it to us to cultivate the holiness in our lives through our decisions.

The bible tells us to take note of the small areas of our life that need adjustment.

Song of Solomon 2:15, “Catch us the foxes, The little foxes that spoil the vines …”

Starting making such small adjustments in your life for God wants you to grow in more and more into holiness. Perhaps God might be preparing you to be in positions that require such a high level of integrity.

I remembered very clearly when I was dating my wife and even after we were married, one of our pet peeves was to trod down to Borders (a book shop that offers free browsing) at Wheellock place to browse through all the magazines and books that interest us. Her World, Cleo, Men’s health, Times, Newsweek, Home and Décor, National Geographic … you name it. We would do this almost weekly and sometimes soaking in there for hours with no intention of buying a single piece of item in the bookshop.

For years we enjoyed our time in Borders like this until we started to ask ourselves if we should be doing this. Oh yes we can argue that, “The book shop offers free browsing and even provide arm chairs for their patrons.” or “Come on, every body is doing it.” or “Aiyah, otherwise how to save money? One magazine costs S$5. If I buy every single magazine wouldn’t I be broke?” or “I am only reading the fashion section of the magazine and not the whole magazine.”

However we knew that the Holy Spirit is already starting to convict us. We ask ourselves truthfully and we knew it was wrong. If I am running the business, I would prefer only interested buyers to browse my magazines and books. Not free loaders.

It was hard decision for us especially when it has sort of became a habit or part of our lifestyle. However we eventually obeyed and decide cut off this hobby. We turned to patronizing National Libraries instead, which also offers some of these magazines even though they were past editions. Not only that, we also found out that there were tons of highly educational videos available for loan which we benefitted tremendously from watching them. Praise God! In a sense, we are cleared of our conscience of “robbing” Borders.

Let’s strive to embrace holiness in our daily living and live more and more like Christ. Like what 1 Peter 1:16 says, “… “Be holy, for I am holy.””

JY