LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? 2 He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart 3 and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, 4 who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, 5 who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

Peter tells us in I Peter 1:15-16 that we are to be holy, even as the one who called us is holy. For most of us, the first thought that comes to mind is that we can never be holy. We can never be as pure as the Psalmist suggests in this Psalm. While there is an absolute sense of being holy that only God can fill, we can make it our goal and we can strive for it. There is ano ther sense of holiness that comes by our being forgiven by the blood of Jesus; both in past tense when we became a child of God and continually in the present as we live for him in total commitment.

How near perfect do you want your surgeon to be? How near perfect do you demand your banker be with your money? Is “close” near enough? Does this mean that the doctor or the banker never makes a mistake? Of course they do but they hopefully strive for total perfection. We should be no less diligent to be totally perfect in all our behavior than the doctor with our health or the banker with our money. In fact, God demands that we honestly and faithfully strive for 100% perfection in our lives, all of the time.

Never to be used as an excuse is the grace of God. However, it is the only comfort and the only hope that we have to be made perfect before our God. We have sinned but it is not our desire and certainly not our goal. With this as our life, we serve God with all of our heart and all of our soul and he continues to forgive us. Because he loves us and has given so much, how can we but give him our all? We must be honest with ourselves and never deceive ourselves into thinking that we are serving God when in fact we are just doing as we please.

O God, please open my heart to your will. Fill me with a burning desire to please you and to live for you all day. Help me to be honest with you, with myself and toward all others. Fill me with your compassion and love that I may share it with all around me. I pray this morning for those who are sick, those who are hurting and those who are faced with difficult problems in their lives. Please keep me humble and never let me be filled with pride and thus be judgmental toward others. I pray in Jesus name.

May God bless each of us with his wisdom to live for him today.