By Jon Keehn

“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”- Hebrews 12:14

Can you think of the last time that you had to search for something? Maybe you forgot where you left your keys or your hat or your wallet/purse. It’s always annoying when you have take a few extra minutes to look for something that should be right where you “know I left it!” I’m sure that each and every one of us has certain places that we always set things down in so that we don’t have to consciously remember where we put them.

I can remember a time when I was 6 or 7 years old and I had this action figure that I loved. I always had it with me. This action figure was one of my favorite toys as a kid and I wanted to be just like the character that the action figure portrayed, which is kind of odd because this was an action figure of the Boy Wonder, Robin, the sidekick of Batman. Seriously, what kid only wants to be a sidekick?

Anyways, there came a time that I remember very distinctly as one of the worst days of my very short life up to that point. I lost Robin. I have no idea what happened to him. To this day I have no idea where I could have misplaced, set down, or dropped this plastic version of the greatest sidekick to ever live. This absolutely wrecked me. I can’t begin to tell you how long I looked for this action figure. I wanted nothing more than to find him and put him back in his rightful place at Batman’s side. I ended up giving in and calling off the search for Robin and eventually moved on to eventually become a sidekick (planting a church with my best friend) but that’s neither here nor there.

Today in our world there are so many of us who are searching for God and trying to pursue God and it seems as if we never get anywhere. We try to believe the right things, go to the right church, learn all the right words, and vote for the right candidates because we want to see God. We want to experience grace, mercy, forgiveness, and freedom from the pain caused by sin. However, far too often I believe that we (myself included) have not pursued or searched for God with the diligence that we search for other things or experiences in our lives. Hebrews 12 tells us that we are to pursue holiness because without that no one will see God.

The problem is that we become so “accustomed” to God, just like that place where you ALWAYS set your keys, that we start to live the Christian life without even thinking about it and soon we find ourselves asking why we even life a Christian life. The good news is it’s ok if you are there. There is still hope. Jesus is offering us opportunity to repent of our sin, confess and surrender to Him, and be made into new people who will share with the rest of the world what it means to be in right relationship for Christ.

To do this, as followers of the risen Christ, we have to pursue Holiness. I know that simply saying this can be a very vague and non-descriptive exhortation, so I want to leave us with some simple ways to pursue Holiness this year and draw near to God with renewed energy and desire to love, honor, obey, and serve Him and the nations of people around us.

What does your time in prayer look like? If we are to pursue Holiness we must be spending time both talking to and listening to our God.

What does your time in the Bible look like? Are you doing the bare minimum to simply get through a study? If we are to pursue Holiness we must familiarize ourselves with God’s word as that is very often how He reveals Himself to us.

What does your church attendance look like? This life was not made to be lived alone. We have been given friends, family, and the like to come aside us and serve with, just as God the Father has the trinity and is never alone. If we are to pursue Holiness we must be a people who commit to a local church and serving with that particular group of believers.

There are so many more ways that we can pursue Holiness but I want to leave us with these 3 to begin. How are you pursuing Holiness in Christ this year?