The Fringe Benefit of Holiness - Greg Laurie Daily Devotion - June 9, 2016
The Fringe Benefit of Holiness
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. - (Matthew 5:6)
Have a nice day. We throw that expression around a lot in our culture. When you make a purchase, the cashier might say, “Thank you. Have a nice day.” Or, maybe you want to return something, and you’re told, “No, we cannot take that back again. Have a nice day.” It’s really their way of saying, “You can go now.”
But what does it really mean to have a nice day? I suppose it would be a day free of sickness, conflict, and hardship—a day that is, well, nice.
That is how God is sometimes perceived. We might imagine Him thundering from Mount Sinai, “Have a nice day!” We like to think of Him as perpetually smiling, wanting us all to be happy, healthy, and wealthy.
I’m not suggesting that God cannot or will not bless us with health or even wealth. Nor am I suggesting that God doesn’t want us to be happy. But that is not God’s primary objective for us. God doesn’t sit around in Heaven and wonder how He can make us happier. What God is really interested in is how He can make us more holy. He wants us to be holy more than He wants us to be happy.
The remarkable thing is that if you really are a holy person, then you will, in turn, be a happy person. Happiness is the fringe benefit of holiness. What does it mean to be holy? Maybe if we respelled holy as wholly,as in whollycommitted, we would get a better understanding of the word. You can be wholly committed to surfing or wholly committed to golfing or wholly committed to money. That is a commitment.
If you want to be holy, be wholly committed to God. You will be happy as a result.
Copyright © 2016 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
and
Listen to Greg Laurie's daily broadcast on OnePlace.com.
Watch Greg Laurie's weekly television broadcast on LightSource.com.
SPECIAL OFFER
Give biblical truths to the children in your life!
If you want to impart spiritual insight to the kids in your life, you must be intentional about communicating in a way that is understandable, engaging, and creative. Author Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrator Jago combine beautiful images with scriptural insight in 101 simple-yet-profound devotional thoughts for kids.
Receive the Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing book when you give a gift of support to Harvest Ministries this month.
