The Practice of Holiness

“People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”
― D.A. Carson  

Holiness is not a habit. There is a reason we are called to practice spiritual discipline.

We must train ourselves in the practice of holiness. There is a reason Paul likens our lives as Christians to the training of an athlete. Athletes don't have a habit of training; they discipline themselves to train. And they don't just train for the fun of it, they have a goal in mind, a purpose.

[25] Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. [26] So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. [27] But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

(1 Corinthians 9:25-27 ESV)

Our practice of holiness is not running aimlessly; rather,  it is part of our sanctification, part of the refining process we must go through in order to become more like Christ. Being His image-bearers is not simple or easy; it takes work. Disciplining our bodies, our minds, and our spirits can be painful. As we are bent in the direction the Vinedresser wants us to grow, our branches may ache and long for release back to the way that they are naturally inclined to go. But He knows best how to tend His Vines so that they will bear the most fruit.

"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

(Hebrews 12:11 ESV)

Holiness requires conscious practice. It means vigilant self-examination, seeing ourselves as we truly are and identifying our sin. Speaking and confessing it, not keeping it to ourselves and hiding what we have done. We must be honest with ourselves and with God about our failures, and must pray for His grace,  that He will show us those sins we do not want to acknowledge, that He would heal us of our spiritual amnesia.

We need to be careful, however, that in our focus on personal holiness, we do not forget the goal--"holiness" without Christ is pompous and priggish Phariseeism. Navel-gazing will not make us holy. Once we look away from Christ to ourselves, we have lost sight of the goal.

True self-examination "[looks] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God"
(Hebrews 12:2 ESV).

[6] If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. [7] Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; [8] for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. [9] The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. [10] For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

(1 Timothy 4:6-10 ESV)