"...There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power...”
Apparently the last days will be marked by a false Christianity that does not change those who posses it. While they talk about faith, their lives are filled with a long list of traits that deny their faith has any power.
Do we hold to a form of godliness but deny its power?
Is our faith an outward decoration - or an internal engine that drives our lives?
The old illustration of not having faith in a chair until you sit on it applicable here. We can speak of our trust in the chair. We can discuss how sturdy it looks, but until we sit in it we really don't know if it will hold us or not.
Unfortunately, many of us have the same relationship with our faith. We talk about it. We tell others how important it is to us, we have jewelry and clothing that advertise it's value...but we have yet to sit in it. We have yet to allow ourselves to completely depend on it to hold us up......and until we do that, we are denying it's power.
Powerless faith, is both useless, and dangerous. It is not only destructive to the holder, but to those they influence as well.
If that is you today, let's change things. Let's take a seat in godliness. Let's become lovers of God, not lovers of pleasure. Put your hope and trust completely in Him ... not denying His power, but betting everything on it. Godliness is not something you have, it is something that has you. It is a powerful force that should drive and direct your every thought, and action.
Your reflection of His love will be a light to others that shows that godliness is not a decoration, but a dominate force that shapes your life.
"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." - Brennan Manning
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