1 to 100
Ezekiel 36:22–32
Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.
There are a lot of things in my life that I say I will do. I will read more books. I will keep my kitchen clean. I will exercise every day. I will break bad habits and start new ones. In 2020 I read a book that inspired me to make changes to my everyday habits. It was the year to read since there was not much socializing happening. The book was Atomic Habits by James Clear. Armed with the newfound knowledge from this book, I set out to change my world and create habits that brought about a small change every month so that by the end of the year I would see a massive transformation.
One of the helpful tidbits from the book was the one percent rule. Essentially if you can make small improvements, just a one percent difference, compounded over a long period of time, you’ll see exponential improvement if you stick with it. So I set out to change one small habit every month. Once a new month rolled around, another habit would get added to the one before. First, it was setting aside an hour every evening for reading, then it was loading the dishwasher right after dinner. One percent change so I could eventually reach one hundred percent.
Similar to my 2020 “I will” endeavor, the people of Israel made a few “I will” statements of their own, but surprise surprise they weren’t really following through and doing the things that they promised they would do. Their promises were related to the covenant that God made with them: “I will be your God and you will be my people” (Jeremiah 7:23). Here the prophet Ezekiel says that Israel “profaned” the holy name of God among the nations because they weren’t following through on their “I wills.” They weren’t living into the covenant they sign up for. They failed to change their habits and become holy.
It might shock you to hear that my habits lasted for about 6 months before they ended up falling apart. I blame the pandemic. I never quite lived into the one hundred percent goal I had set for myself.
But God’s “I will” statements are very different from my “I will” statements. And praise God that they are! Here are some of the statements God says he will do for you. I will cleanse you from your sin and make you holy. I will give you a new heart and put my spirit in you.
If you are a Christian there are two realities that you need to understand: God has made you holy and he is making you holy. Both are true and it can be hard to hold on to both of those things together. Am I already holy or is this a process? Yes. God is sanctifying you and making you holy now and you are already holy because of Christ now. These are the present realities.
All this doesn’t mean we don’t participate in our sanctification, but what it does mean is that we take God at his word when he says, “I will.” David Powlison puts it this way “You are 100 percent responsible, and yet you are 100 percent dependent on outside help.” God is faithful to bring you along even if it happens gradually. Even if it’s small 1 percent changes; he will be faithful to bring you from 1 to 100.
