11 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Ask the priests what the law says:
12 If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, olive oil or other food, does it become consecrated?’ ” The priests answered, “No.” – Haggai 2:11-12 (NIV)
If you woke up tomorrow with a cold or the flu, could you get together with your closest friends – who aren’t sick – and have all their health transfer over to you and make you well?
Of course not!
What if you went to the hospital – the place where the sick come for healing – and walked the hallways, grabbed some coffee from the cafeteria, and listened to a doctor explain your sickness and the necessary treatment? Would you walk out the front doors and head home free from your illness?
Not a chance!
Why then is it so easy for us to think that we can be made holy if we just hang out with holy people in holy places and do some holy things? We’ve been lulled into a belief that if we attend worship gatherings on Sunday mornings, if we read our Bibles, if we say some prayers, if we throw a couple of bucks in the offering, then our proximity to these holy things and holy moments will simply transfer holiness over to us.
The problem with this train of thought is that holiness isn’t a performance of religious activities or duties. Holiness isn’t earned by doing some good deeds that we believe will appease God and score us a few extra brownie points on judgment day. Holiness isn’t an outward display to be performed, it’s an inner work of the Lord to make our hearts transformed.
We are not holy because we’re participating in “21 Days of Prayer and Fasting.” However, the Lord can and will use these 21 days by His grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit to do a holy transformation deep in our hearts. It’s not our participation and proximity to these spiritual disciplines that will bring about holiness in our lives; it’s only in our proximity to and participation with Jesus.
Don’t rely on being close to holy things and the fruitless hope that holiness will be transferrable. Instead, find yourself drawing close to the Holy One knowing that He desires to make you holy as He is holy.