More and more, the Lord has been teaching me about holiness and purity and what that means in my life. Growing up, my idea of purity was the “true love waits” slogan, purity ring, and Not of This World t-shirts. Though that is definitely a form of purity and abstaining from sex till marriage is a must, it is not the whole picture. Purity is so much more than a ring and a Not of this World t-shirt.

This idea goes back to my last post about The Glory of God and what that means in my life. If my life’s sole purpose is to glorify the Lord, then my idea of purity is completely different then just a ring or just a t-shirt. It is about complete and utter surrender to what the Lord has for my life. This does not just have to do with my relationship to my boyfriend, although it does affect it quite drastically, but it has to do with my WHOLE life. I was telling my friend Kelly earlier that I want my life to be 100% pure, not just 99%. not just 99.9%, but 100% pure. It’s like having a gallon bucket of water and taking a drink out of it. It’s fine until you realize that someone put just one drop of poison into it. It’s tainted. I don’t want to be tainted.

The things I say, the things I do, the things I see, the things I hear, the people I spend the most time with, the clothes I wear, the books I read, the internet sites I go onto and spend my time on, the organizations and clubs I join, the church I attend, the radio stations I listen to and sing along to, and sooooo much more…All these things are affected in my life when purity is my main goal. When I desire to completely and utterly follow the Lord with my life, I am signing over my desires and likes to him. I am saying, “the world is no longer desirable to me, I just want you.”

What does that mean practically in my life?

One, the movies I watch are more appropriate. I will look up the content online before I go because I don’t want to watch anything that will fill my mind of things that are not of the Lord.

Two, if I am listening to a certain radio station and a song comes on that is inappropriate, I will change the station to something more uplifting. Maybe that is Christian radio, but maybe that is even to just another station.

Three, if I am trying to honor the Lord with my time and something is taking up the majority of that, I will give up that thing, or sacrifice some time with it. For example, this semester I gave up Facebook because I knew that if I had it, it would consume too much of my life. The Lord has used so much of that time for Him, and it is amazing!! My sophomore year, I spent way too much time with my boyfriend and wasted time I could be spending with friends or encouraging the people around me. Although certain circumstances didn’t allow for us to spend a lot of time together this year, I made a decision that I would spend the majority of my time with my friends and those around me that I could minister to. It has been remarkable to see what the Lord has done with that time.

Four, like I said before, the relationship with my boyfriend looks drastically different then before. Since I now desire to honor the Lord in everything I do and give the Glory to Him, our relationship has changed. Before, it was just about not having sex. That was our ultimate goal and that was a sin for us. This is why it was a sin: Because that was what we viewed as holy and pure, everything else before sex was “okay.” It was something we viewed as wrong, but we would constantly be stuck in that rut of “messing up” and it was crushing us and the joy the Lord gave us. We didn’t have joy in our relationship because we didn’t have the Lord in our relationship. Our relationship was defined by sin and not defined by the Lord.  My heart did not truly desire purity, because a lot of me still desired to have a physical relationship with Drew. I wanted to kiss him and nothing in me was willing to not do that. Sacrificing that was not an option. Once the Lord began to teach me about what purity truly was, my attitude toward purity in every aspect of me and Drew’s relationship changed. My view of kissing, or not kissing, changed. The Lord totally and utterly changed my heart and by His grace alone, we have not even kissed since before Thanksgiving break. This is only by the Lord.  This is not to say that we wont kiss again before we get married, but the Lord has shown me that it is not just about not having sex, it is about glorifying him in our relationship: physically, emotionally, in our attitudes, in the way we talk about each other, in the things I say to him, everything.

There is a passage in Proverbs 6 that says, “Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?” (Verses 27 & 28).

The Lord has given us a precious gift of purity. The world desires nothing of purity and holiness, but as believers, we are given that gift. So often, we miss out on this opportunity. We miss out on the opportunity to encourage someone when we are upset at them. We miss out on the opportunity to decide not to do something and spreading that example of Christ to others. There was a girl who wasn’t a believer who found out that I wasn’t doing something that the world does and it totally made her curious to why I did that. I ended up getting to share with her the difference Christ, and glorifying him, has done in my life. We miss out on these opportunities because we want to enjoy some of the pleasures of this world. Christianity is not about that; it is the opposite. We deny those worldly pleasures, so we can have the joy and pleasure of the Lord.

The apostle John talks about this in the book of 1 John. It says in chapter 2 verses 15-17, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world-the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions-is not from the father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” This truth is more than just a nice saying on a ring or t-shirt, but it is the choice of life or death. We can choose life and decide to turn away from the desires of the flesh, or we can choose death and choose the way of the world.

The decision of purity is more than signing a paper and deciding to not have sex till you’re married. This decision of purity is to deny yourself every thing that is of the world that is not of the Lord to give Glory to Him. It is about his glory, it is not about us. When we realize that, our worldview changes. Our lives change. Our love for people and our love for God changes. It’s remarkable!

“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (1 John 2:4-6 ESV)

Looking forward to a time in a place like this soon:

Monterey, Ca

To Be Continued… =)