Raising the Standard
Raising the Standard
Without realizing it, a pastor/friend challenged me about raising my standards. Not only do I have respect for him for being
a much anointed word teacher, but also since going to school together, he
always set the standard very high. I have
the highest respect for him. He just
fall in a complete other category. The
heading of this category is:
“Led by the Spirit”.
It came as quite a surprise to
me, being challenged by a man to raise my standards. Unfortunately, I am not used to a man
challenging my standards. In the past I
always lowered my standards to meet men’s standards.
Why on earth did I do that?
Am I not supposed to have very high standards, being a child of God?
Paul said: “For what I am doing, I do not understand.
For what I will to do, that I do not practise; but what I hate, that I do. (Romans 7:15)
You can’t stand with one foot in
the flesh and your other foot in the Spirit.
You have to be led by the Spirit,
CONSTANTLY! And
the only way to accomplish that is through relationship with Him.
While meditating on this, I was
led by the Spirit to another man, named Job.
Job was also a man who was blameless and upright, and one who feared God
and shunned evil. (Job 1:1)
God made a hedge of protection
around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every
side. (Job 1:10)
Why did God protect him? Job was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil. The only way Job could be tested, was because
God allowed Satan to test Job.
“And the Lord said to Satan,
‘Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his
person.’ So Satan went out from the
presence of the Lord”.
(Job 1:12)
Be Holy
God commands us to be holy. He said:
“Be holy, for I am holy”.
(Leviticus 11:44-45, Leviticus 19:2, Leviticus
20:7, Leviticus 20:26, Leviticus 21:8).
Peter reminds us as well. “Because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am
holy”. 1 Peter 1:16
Peter said: “but like
the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior”. 1
Peter 1:15
Moses said: “Since
the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat
your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see
anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you”. Deuteronomy 23:14
People often say:
“Jesus came to set you free. You
are not under the law anymore”.
I might not be under the curse of the law anymore but I am
most certainly still under the blessings of God, living a holy life. Jesus did not come to destroy the law. He actually super seeded it. (Romans 7:15-25).
The good news of Jesus Christ is that He came
to set the example – living a life of righteousness befitting the person. We are justified freely by God’s grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
The Test
The moment I decided to raise my standards, the test
came. A male friend of friends, who
needs to come to town for a job interview, needed a place to stay over. Fortunately, being led by the Spirit, I
immediately realized that this is a test.
So I simply shared my standards with him.
"I am a single woman and unfortunately, I
don’t feel comfortable allowing men to stay over in my apartment". I also reminded him that he has other friends
in town as well, a married couple with children.
Romans 12:2
Blessings
Laetitia Zeeman
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