God is our helper and in times of need we cry unto Him to help us. The help from God at times may come right away other times it will lapse over long periods before we receive the help. The great thing about it all is that God is always on time, and we experience His great glory through it all. The challenge for us as believers is the period between the asking for the help and the arrival of the help from God. Every need we present to God is followed with a time of waiting, waiting for God’s perfect will to be done, waiting on God to intervene in the situation, waiting to experience the goodness, grace and glory of God.

Waiting on God looks different for all people; we all have different needs that make us wait on God. A married couple may be waiting on God for the fruit of the womb, financial breakthrough or restoration of their marriage. A young adult may be waiting on God for his or her career to take off, a future life partner or divine direction to make a life-changing decision. Some may also be waiting on God for miraculous healing, salvation for the lost, deliverance, strength, and the list is endless. And now, what we may all share in common is waiting on God for the COVID-19 pandemic to come to an end.

The difficult times in life draw us to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ to wait on Him. In waiting, there are two things that are mainly expected of us as believers that is to TRUST and OBEY God. In our waiting on God, our trust in God must always be accompanied by obedience to God. Obedience is living in alignment or accordance to God’s will, word and ways. A person who lives an obedient or yielded life to God is one who lives in holiness.

During periods of waiting on God, all sorts of struggles may rise, our faith in God is challenged, and also temptations are at their peak levels. The enemy will roar and pant with all kinds of deceptions to lead us astray. But it is especially in these moments of waiting when we must cling to God and yield to the Spirit of God to guide, lead and help us to live for God in true holiness and righteousness.

¹³ Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; ¹⁴ as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; ¹⁵ but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶ because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:13-16

In very difficult times in the lives of the scattered Christians in Asia Minor, Peter the apostle pens the letter 1 Peter to the believers to teach, guide and empower them in their faith as they experience the tragic persecution under the rulership of Emperor Nero of Rome. Amidst all the challenges, Peter admonishes them to be holy as the God they serve is holy. Peter understood the temptations that could arise in times like these so he ensured to remind the believers of the importance of being holy during such times of waiting on God.

Here are three important reminders that I pray will help us as believers to abide in God’s holiness when waiting on Him.

(1) God the Holy Spirit empowers us to be Holy

Holiness is a state of being in the believer which is imputed by Jesus Christ when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. Upon receiving Christ’s righteousness, we are also called to live it out through our obedience to God, and that is when the Spirit of God helps us to do so. A person cannot generate holiness in their ability, but it is our submission to the Spirit that enables us to desire and seek the ways of God and abide in them.

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—

John 14:16 NIV

To be Holy is God’s Command for Believers

To obey God is to do what He requires of us. One of the commands God gives us as His children is to be holy. Obedience to God is one of the key pillars of being a believer. As such we ought to always heed to God and obey His word. In addition, in living holy lives it sets us apart that we are children of God and God is glorified in us.

²⁶ You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.

Leviticus 20:26 NIV

Living in Holiness Guards our life in Christ Jesus

We guard our lives against the invasion of the enemy when we live a holy life. The enemy could not touch Job because he was holy and blameless before God and so to touch him, the enemy had to obtain access from God. Job did not give place for the enemy in his life because he lived a holy life. Sinning opens the door of the enemy to torment our lives. When we live unholy lives, it is also our way of saying that our Lord Jesus Christ is no longer Lord of our lives. We come under the rulership of the enemy when we stray from God and that allows the enemy to do to us whatever He wants. But the grace of God abounds towards us when we repent and turn to God, He redeems and restore us as His children and the power of enemy is broken over our lives. The temptations will still come but through grace and empowerment of God’s Spirit, we will flee from them and abide in God’s holiness always.

²¹ If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; ²³ And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; ²⁴ And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. ²⁵ Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. ²⁶ Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: ²⁷ Neither give place to the devil.

Ephesians 4:21-27

1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and ^[a]shunned evil.

Job 1:1

Living a holy life in itself is a blessing. Holiness helps us build our faith in God, God draws near to us, and we also receive God’s protection against the wicked plans and plots of the enemy. It is my prayer to God that believers will arise to live out true holiness for it is in living such lives that we can truly experience the glory of God in our lives in our waiting. Be blessed 🙂