The first step to becoming a genuine holy person, not a title but a reality of everyday life, is to have a burning desire to be a better person everyday of your life. The desire to be righteous before God can’t be casual, it has to be all consuming.

The problem is that we all sin everyday, and even if we are sinning less, we are still sinning. The great gift of God, the essence of Christianity, is that God forgives and He cleanses, that is He takes away the guilt that we have when we sin.

Years ago John Fischer wrote a song called, “I Want To Be a More Righteous Man”. I sang that song constantly. I am not very musical and I don’t remember songs very well, but that song burned a hole in my heart.

I want to be a more righteous man, I want to be a godly man, teach me to do what I can to follow closer to You, I want to follow a different drum even if I’me the only one, I want to hear when I’me done, “You did well my son.”

The key words in the song that so captivated my heart were the words, “I want.” “I want,” “I want,” “I want,” “I want.” There is something supernaturally powerful in declaring that you want what God wants. When you say that over and over, God makes it happen. I dare you to read the words of that song 20 times a day, and see what happens.

The first requirement to be holy and righteous is to “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” You can’t simply will that desire into your heart, so the question is how do I get that super strong drive for righteousness in me? The repetition of the desire in the form of a little song was amazingly powerful in my heart, and I bet it will work in yours as well.