February 8th - Hebrews 12:14

Hebrews 12:14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. The UK is blessed with a huge number of stately homes which have amazing gardens. As we revel in the beauty of the flowers, shrubs and trees it is absolutely right for us to give thanks to God for the miracle of creation. But the fact is that, normally out of sight, there are large teams of gardeners who have worked incredibly hard to plant, cultivate, weed and water the gardens. Those gardens are a partnership between God and the gardeners. Church life is exactly the same. Without God there would be no church, but he looks to us to work hard to enable the Church to flourish. Here he points to two areas of hard work that are our own responsibility: living at peace and living holy lives. Living at peace is constantly demanding. When you look at a peaceful family or organisation it will give the impression that it all happens with ease and inevitability. But we all know that peace only happens where there are peace-makers, people who go out of their way to create and maintain it. Peace is, in fact, extremely fragile and it doesn’t take much to damage it. That’s why the writer urges his readers to work at living at peace. The other area is holiness. The word holy means separate, and so the holy person is the one who goes out of their way to live for God, deliberately separating themselves from anything that is not godly. The important point to take on board is that holiness won’t just happen. Meeting with other Christians, singing songs of worship, reading the Bible and praying are all splendid activities but they won’t make you holy. Holiness comes by deliberately shaping your life in a way that pleases God. It, too, requires work. Question How can you work at living at peace with everyone and becoming holy today? Prayer Lord God, fill me with your Holy Spirit right now so that I will be the person you want me to be. Amen