Consecration

Consecration is such a big, scary, church-y word.

And I haven't been able to get it out of my head since Camp Mulberry. Its been pounded into my head like a nail with a hammer and it will not come loose. But it's okay, because "consecration," as scary as it may sound, is changing my life.

So what is it? When I got home from camp I looked up every place in the NIV Bible where the word consecration was used. It was mentioned in several different contexts, but I came to find that most often to "consecrate" is to dedicate or to commit. In Leviticus 20:7, the Bible says "Consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy." In Exodus, when Aaron and his sons were made priests, the tent of meeting, or the sanctuary of God, as we might call it today, was consecrated by the glory of God through sacrifice and through worship. Paul tells Timothy to consecrate himself by the word.... so here I am looking through all of these scriptures and what does it tell me??? Something very simple: Consecration is just a "big, scary, church-y" word for "PULL IT TOGETHER AND DO YOUR BEST TO BE LIKE JESUS!!!!"

God said, "Consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy." Be holy because I am holy. Do it through worship, through reading the word, through prayer. Consecration is a lifestyle. Its a way to be on fire for God and not be luke-warm. Its so easy to get caught up in just living like a Christian and not really striving to be more like Christ. We say we want to see revival in our churches, but we do not experience revival in our own lives.

I was so convicted about this that I have started to make changes in my life. I think I mentioned this a couple of entries earlier, but after I decided to make these changes, I included my Sunday School class in on it. We have a calendar of things to pray for, fast from, and scriptures to read every single day. And I may not have seen souls won to the kingdom, or people healed just yet, but I can feel the waters of revival being stirred. I feel the Holy Ghost in my own personal walk with the Lord more than I have in months. I think we totally and completely underestimate what simply doing something will accomplish. Just read your Bible. Just pray, really pray everyday. Its not that hard and it is life changing.