Power of a Praying Woman 10/17/06 9:02 AM Page 129
Lord, Preserve Me…
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holiness of God and living in purity is the only way we are able to be close to Him. “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully” (Psalm 24:3-4). “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glori?ed” (Leviticus 10:3). There is nothing more important than being close to God. There comes a time in all of our lives when we are desperate to know that God is close and that He hears our prayers and will answer. We won’t have time to get right with God; we will have to be right with God. “The LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly; the LORD will hear when I call to Him” (Psalm 4:3). Now is the time to start living righteous, pure, and holy lives if we want to see our prayers answered in the future. 7. Holiness means letting God keep you. Holiness is not something you slip in and out of like a nightgown. Holiness is God’s will for our lives, and something God has planned for us from the beginning. “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” (Ephesians 1:4-5). God has made a way for us to live in holiness. And He is able to keep us holy. When our heart wants to live in purity and do the right thing, God will keep us from falling into sin. When Abraham told King Abimelech that Sarah was his sister instead of telling him that she was his wife, Abimelech took her into his own house. But in a dream God told Abimelech that he would soon be a dead man because he had taken another man’s wife. Abimelech said, “In