A Form of Godliness that Contains No Power...

Where do we stand with God? Are we expecting Him to work for us, when we have chosen to walk down roads that lead us away from a power that can heal…redeem and lead us, to where we can experience a mighty God at work within our lives?  In II Timothy 3:1-7, we read…“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. (2) People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, (3) without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, (4) treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—(5) having a form of godliness but denying its power….(7) always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

As God was leading me directly to these verses this morning, I decided to look up the word “godliness,” in comparison to “a form of godliness” and this is what I found. Godliness means to have a love for God that causes us to fear Him; in a way, where we long to please Him and follow in His footsteps, rather than our own. On the other hand…“a form of godliness,” is when we choose to take God’s word and fashion it after our own liking… or to do our own thing and live according to our own standards. We must come to see today that when we choose to live with a “form of godliness;” then these moments only lead us down roads, where we can be easily led by the hand of evil, rather than the hand of God. When we choose to become lovers of ourselves, while following after our own thoughts, plans and ideas; then we will find that we can become easily detached from God and what He truly longs to do for us.

Don’t we realize that when we attach ourselves to a life that only seeks to please ourselves; that we have detached ourselves from a power that is more than capable of caring for our every need?  How do we expect God to answer our prayers and work for our good, while we choose to follow after a “form of godliness” that contains no power? Today…we need to not only learn about God but we need to be willing to lay everything of ourselves to the side; that we may gain the knowledge and truth that can reconnect us back to a power; that can work at meeting our needs. Today, we need to look closely at what these verses are saying because just one of these “forms of godliness” could place a road block between us and God…to the place, where we miss out on His best.
​