This daily devotional reviews our definition of godliness and what I considered the nuggets of the month in the newsletters. They give us a snapshot of what godliness is.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
We’ve covered a lot of different topics that rolled up into the concept of godliness. It was interesting that our definition of godliness changed – but not by that much.
When I started the newsletters, I started to pull up one comment that I considered the main nugget. Okay, some months, I had more than one.
What can we learn from those?
Let's Put It into Context
Godliness, equated with the Old Testament term fear of the Lord, is an attitude of reverence that is promoted by walking in His Spirit and obeying God’s laws and commandments and produces a moral likeness of God.
Godliness has a dual form as it should be both an inward and outward expression. Said another way, reverence should be all-encompassing.
The inward expression of godliness is communion with God. Prayer is a two-way communication with God. Even if we are praying with our mouths, we are praying with our hearts. Our inward expression of godliness also manifests itself in confession, praise, and worship. We have to pursue godliness because of an internal stimulus.
The outward expression implies a love for God’s laws and commandments. It manifests itself in our acts of service for God. Service is an act based on belief in God that comes from a response of worship by acknowledging His power through our submission.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Ungodliness is denial of God and refusal of following His laws and commandments, instead living a life engaged in sinfulness.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Main Nuggets
- If godliness is reverence in thought, feeling, and conduct that is promoted by walking in His Spirit and obeying God’s laws and commandments and produces a moral likeness of God, and is the last virtue in the continuum, we aren’t going to even come remotely close to getting up to God’s level if we don’t start out with the faith (What Are the Causes and Effects of Evil? (Part 1)).
- Some think that God requiring our obedience is a string to the gift of salvation. It isn’t (Surrendering Our Will to God).
- Salvation is not about the do’s and don’ts. Submission is. By following God’s laws and commandments — and asking for forgiveness when we break them — we are growing holiness (Growing Our Souls).
- Holiness is the inner expression and glory is the outward expression of God’s character (Attributes of God: Holy).
- God wants us to change our character so that we can apply the laws and commandments in any situation in which we find ourselves (The Law of Liberty).
- Our character finds its home in our heart. Our thoughts are the index of character (Controlling Our Thoughts through Meditation).
- If we have our yapper going, we may or may not have our heart involved. We’ve got to get it down to the heart level for it to make an impact on our character (Why Should We Listen When Worshiping?).
- It is our duty to surrender our will to God by submitting to Him. Why must we submit to God? He is worthy of our worship (Surrendering Our Will to God).
- There are not different degrees of sin. All have done one thing: broken an express law, commandment, or directive from God. In reality, lying is just as bad as murder (The Morality of Peace).
- God doesn’t sorta forgive us of our sins. It isn’t just a surface forgive. God does a deep cleanse. It isn’t just part of them — it is all of them. It is such a deep cleans that it gets down to the sparkly clean of righteousness (How Do We Cleanse and Purify to Submit to God?).
- It is a deep clean. Not only our sins are purged, but also the guilt of our sins is washed away (How Do We Cleanse and Purify to Submit to God?).
- God is going for a total redo (Diligence Is a Work in Progress).
- Most of us think “Be still, and know that I am God …” (Ps. 46: 10 ESV) is an invitation. We also sometimes think we will only hear “be still” in times of trials. Instead, we should look at “be still” as a command that we have to obey every day (Promoting Silence in Our Soul).
- The amazing thing is, is that God isn’t finished revealing Himself to us. On each step on the Sanctification Road, God will reveal more of Himself to us (Attributes of God: Self-Sufficient).
- The inward has to be in step with the outward when we are transforming into what God wants us. What good — really — is it going to do us to abstain from something but still thinking about it constantly? That really isn’t abstaining.
- Our morality is shown in our motives, not our actions.
- If love is the foundation of our actions, we will choose God’s way to fulfill the laws (Submitting to Love).
- Sanctified ability is an interesting term. Ability is the capacity to do something. We either have the proficiency or the potential to accomplish the goal. Our redo for godliness is all about how God is sanctifying us. God is the one who is redoing us. So, we might not have the ability right now, but God is working on us to get us to have that ability. We don’t have to be perfect right now. God is in the business of making us perfect. We are a work in progress (We Are All Ministers).
- Having a strong faith does not exclude us from judgment any more than a weak faith acts as an excuse (The Law of the Future).
● Judgment occurs when we sin. Righteousness is the reward when we don’t sin. The judgment and righteousness God bestows on us is not a negative (Attributes of God: Righteousness).
● If we live or die, it doesn’t matter — we do it for the Lord (The Law of Belonging).
Making the Connections
Making the Connections
We said that godliness has a dual form as it should be both an inward and outward expression. Said another way, reverence should be all-encompassing.
Really, it isn’t just the reverence that should be all-encompassing. Our character should be totally imitating God’s character. Our dedication to Him expressed by prayer should be all-encompassing. How He calls us to serve Him should be all-encompassing.
How Do We Apply This?
- We have to determine what God is and what we are not. God is virtuous, perfect, and holy. We are not (Prayer the Wrong Way).
- God is not going to start us down the Sanctification Road, and suddenly take an off-ramp (Attributes of God: Omniscient and All-Knowing).
- We set our thoughts above when we are pursuing godly perfection (How Do We Set Our Thoughts Above?).
Father God. Lord, we thank You that You give us second, third, and fourth chances – even more. You know Your ways are higher than ours, so we find it challenging at times to fully live for You. You guide us to navigate the Sanctification Road. Help us to always look to You so that we can grow closer to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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