Attaining God's Holiness

...For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.   -2 Corinthians 4:16


Referring to Paul's commentary on the renewing power of the Holy Spirit, St. Augustine wrote:
"We are renewed day by day by making progress in our righteousness and true holiness through the knowledge of God.  For those who do so transfer their love from temporal things to eternal things, from visible things to invisible things, from fleshly things to spiritual things....They do this in proportion to their help from God.  For God said, 'Without Me ye can do nothing.'"


It's no secret that life comes with an expiration date.  Daily we see those around us whose lives reach a sudden and sometimes unexpected end.  With every passing year, time seems to move more quickly.  And, in a society obsessed with conserving its youth, we are faced with constant reminders that we just aren't as young as we used to be.


Do you want your life to matter?  Do you look at the years of your past and see days and even years wasted, with nothing spiritual or eternal to show?  Have you determined to make every hour and every breath count for the rest of your life?  The difference between a day wasted and a day lived for God's glory is the renewal that God's Holy Spirit brings.


Like the inspection sticker on a car or the neglected dairy products on the back of the refrigerator shelf, life quickly expires, and that expiration is counteracted only by being renewed spiritually.  Unless we strive to care for our bodies with exercise, nutrition and proper rest, they will expire.  Likewise, Augustine points out, we must take an active part in the renewal of our spiritual selves.
Not that we can by any means create for ourselves, or even earn what God has made available to us--we can only receive and find ourselves humbled by our inability to renew ourselves.  But prayer and fasting, meditation on God's Word, serving those less privileged than ourselves--all these disciplines and more serve to draw us into the "sweet spot" where we can best receive the renewal God has intended for us.


And as Paul preaches, when we do these things, we find that though our earthly "tents" are perishing and one day will pass away, yet our inner self--the real self, the incorruptible self, the eternal self--is being daily made new, as it will be through eternity by the power of Jesus' atoning death.


As we learn to focus on those activities that lead us into the sweet spot of God's Spirit, there is bonus, too:  we find that we no longer let our minds linger over the brief nature of our earthly life, but we find ourselves tuned in to the glory of heaven, the eternal nature of salvation, the enjoyment of Jesus' personal existence in us.  What could be better?  Renewed for free, by a power not our own, we are set free from the fear of death to rejoice in the goodness of God!


May God help us as we practice the presence of His Spirit and learn to enjoy Him more day by day!