There is a benefit of becoming godly. We gain contentment. This daily devotional looks at how giving God priority in our lives and following His laws and commandments makes us godly, which brings contentment.
Nuggets
- When we become godly and gain contentment because we have the character we were intended to have.
- In order to accomplish our redo, we have to give God the priority in every area of our lives.
- Godliness, along with contentment, comes from being obedient to God’s laws and commandments.
Devotions in the Review 101: Godliness series
We are executing a redo this year because we want a better result. We want to be more like God, which will bring us contentment.
Ooo, baby! The year has just begun, and we already know we will need lots of contentment this year!!!
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. The fear of the Lord means awe, reverence and love, not terror.
We spent a whole series looking at contentment. Some of the things were learned were the following:
- God has commanded all disciples be content in our situations.
- Knowing God and being like God will be us contentment.
- We like to think that godliness and holiness are synonymous, but sometimes, we like to think those are just a short distance from sin.
- We know what makes us content and what doesn’t.
- It matters whether we are content or not.
- We have to look at our employment as it — whatever we are doing — is ordained by God.
- God wants us to be working toward what He wants us to be working toward.
To read a devotion in the Contentment Leads to Tranquility series, click on the appropriate button below.
How Is Godliness Related to Contentment?
“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment” (I Tim. 6: 6 ESV)
When we become godly, we gain contentment. This is because we have the character we were intended to have.
Godliness fosters contentment because we become like God. When God originally created us, He made us this way. However, we changed after Adam and Eve committed the original sin.
Becoming godly takes us back to the way we were originally created. It means we possess spiritual life, not spiritual death. Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
However, godliness can produce contentment in this life. Sibthorp listed one of the benefits as “… the improvement of his judgment, his discrimination, his mental faculties.” Our lives have more contentment because of this improvement.
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Beattie explained how that can be. Leading godly lives eliminates sorrows in life. Yes, there will be sorrow, but godliness brings joy to life. “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (Ps. 51: 12 ESV).
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Godliness Obtained through the Gospel
In order to accomplish our redo, we have to give God the priority in every area of our lives. It also means growing in the three sides of godliness.
We want to be like God. In order to do that, we follow the gospel, “… because the object of the revelation of Christ in the gospel is to show us the character of God in the person of a man, and thereby set us a pattern for us to copy — and by offering grace to all, by which they may be able to copy that pattern, to make them Godlike by making them like Christ.” That means we have to seek God
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It will take hearing His Word, reading it, studying it, meditating on it, and memorizing it. All through that, we need to be in prayer, asking God to provide the meaning.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Godliness Obtained through Obedience to the Laws and Commandments
Godliness, along with contentment, comes from being obedient to God’s laws and commandments. That is because the laws and commandments show us God’s character.
As we follow them, our character changes to be like Him. It becomes second nature to us.
Look at it this way. Our three sides of godliness follow the greatest commandments.
“‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mt. 22: 36-39 ESV).
- If we love God, we will build our relationships with Him.
- If we love God, we will obey His laws and commandments.
- If we love others, we will reflect Him to others
In How Does Dedication Help Consistency?, we said that this is how Christian perfection is achieved. Our character is changed to be like His.
Godliness breeds contentment because our relationships with God is where they should be. Becoming more like God brings us peace that allows us to be satisfied.
Newton must have thought the same way because he had an interesting definition of godliness. He said godliness is “… real, vital, experimental, practical religion — genuine Christianity — a religion concerning God, the great, the wise, the blessed God.”
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We can understand the vital part. It has to be a 24/7/365 relationship.
Experimental? When something is experimental, it is untested. That means it isn’t the final product.
Well, doesn’t that fit? We are still a work in progress. We are being tested.
No, we won’t be a finished product until we are perfected. The perfected state indicates the combination of the graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
Glossary
We are not going to be perfect until we are called home. Until then, we will get things right sometimes.
Sometimes, we will not. That’s why it is experimental.
Making the Connections
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (II Cor. 12: 9 ESV)
Smith had an interesting sermon. Its title was Enough. He wrote, “The godly man hath found that which all the world doth seek, that is, enough.”
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We are content with what God has given us. Why?
It isn’t about what He has given us. It is about being in a relationship with Him.
Some of us may find perfection in the next year. One thing brought home to Adam and I this year — as with so many others — we aren’t guaranteed next year — or even tomorrow.
Unless Jesus comes to call us home, the majority will still be here this time next year. We have to find enough.
Enough is going to be different this year, just like it was the year before — and every year before that.
Each year has its own enough. We have to see what God’s plan says enough is for us this year.
How Do We Apply This?
We work to know God as Maclaren said: “… His character, His heart, His relations to us, His thoughts of good concerning us sufficiently for all intellectual and for all practical purposes.”
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Berry said that we have to do this by being in Christ. Our evaluations of ourselves need the framework of God is calling us to be saints. Saint means holy one who has been set apart.
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So, if we are in a redo year, what is God going to think about that?
Lewis gave us an idea. He wrote, “The Saviour sees, not merely what we are, but what we may become, and as fidelity is the highest element of moral worth, He estimates the value of men, not by what they do, but by their fidelity — by the proportion which exists between their power and their performance. The lisping prayer of a little child may thus be of greater value in God’s estimation, than the highest song which ever rose from an angel’s heart.”
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Oh, don’t get me wrong. God is not delusional about us. He sees us exactly as we are.
But what isn’t all. God sees us bought by the blood and changed into someone like His Son.
So, this year we are not going to focus on how we have messed up in the past. (He has forgiven us of those sins when we asked.)
We aren’t going to focus on what is wrong with us now.
We are going to focus on what God wants us to be. Like Him.
Father God. We are humbled that You give us second chances. In fact, You forgive us again and again when we ask. Lord, we want to grow to be more like You. We want to follow Your laws and commandments because we have Your character. We can only do that through You changing us. Amen.
What do you think?
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