Respectable Sins: Ungodliness

I wish I could capture, in this blog, the spirit of the dialog last night at Bible study. Lots of great conversation, sharing thoughts and feelings honestly, and freedom expressing differing opinions.

We started off asking the question, "before reading this chapter, what would you have said was the root of all sin?" Most of us said the root of all sin is pride. The author of our study suggests an even more basic, more widespread, and more apt to be the root cause of our other sins - the sin of ungodliness. And that started off our evening of great discussion.

Some of us said we looked at this chapter and thought this doesn't pertain to us - after all, we're Christians, we're not ungodly. Some of us said of course we're ungodly - we're so far from being Christ-like, we don't think of ourselves as nearly godly enough.

If we define ungodliness as living one's everyday life with little or no thought of God, or of God' will, or of God's glory, or of one's dependence on God, we can see how one can lead a respectable life and still be ungodly in the sense that God is essentially irrelevant in one's life. We may pray for a few minutes at the beginning of the day, we may even read our Bibles for awhile, then check ✔,
that's one thing off our list for the day.

It's not that we're living obviously sinful lives - we just don't think about the will of God throughout the activities of the day. We're content to avoid obvious sins but we don't seek the full knowledge of God's will.

"We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."

Colossians 1:9-10

Now that's a God-centered prayer! How do we balance a God-centered prayer, totaling seeking His will and expressing our deepest longings, without our prayer becoming a "to-do" or a "want" list from us to God? If we rush to say "not my will, but Yours be done" without first expressing our hearts, we withhold our desires and stop being ourselves....we stop being real with God. If we ask God for health, financial, and other temporal needs, we may feel we're being selfish or asking too much so we don't ask.....or we may ask with the wrong motivations. 

So, how do we get our prayers right? The answer is we don't have to get prayer "right".  We just need to talk with God, tell Him where we are, where we're messy, weary, worried - give Him the opportunity to be a part of our daily life; don't leave Him out - don't try to act on our own without God. We have to begin with what is real - Jesus didn't come for the righteous - He came for sinners and we all qualify.

Jesus was real when He prayed to His Father in Luke 22:42, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" and in Matthew 27:46 "... My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus was anguished because He was separated from His Father as He bore our sin.  Jesus expressed that anguish to His Father but yet accepted that His will be done. Jesus neither suppressed His feelings nor let feelings master Him. 

James 4:2 "....ye have not, because ye ask not." Our failure to ask, whether it's because we think God already knows what's on our mind, or because of pride, or because of self-reliance, keeps us distant from God.  Our next problem is when we ask selfishly. James 4:3 "When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." Avoid asking selfishly by surrendering completely - yet not what I will, but what you will. Be real about our feelings - but don't let feelings control you.

1 Corinthians 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." The "all" in this verse includes every activity of our days; eating, drinking, shopping, driving, social relationships, work, school, our appearance - how we dress - everything! Do we consciously and prayerfully seek His glory in all we say and do in our most ordinary activities of the day? Or do we go about those activities with little or no thought of God. Where are we in the spectrum - is God relevant or irrelevant as we go about our day. 

1 Timothy 4:7 " Train yourself for godliness." An athlete must train to compete. Training involves commitment, consistency, and discipline. We must be just as intentional about training ourselves in godliness as a runner would be for a marathon.

Let's commit to pray for each other this week -  for a greater consciousness of God, of God's will, of God's glory, of our dependence on God in our daily routine and in our thoughts, words, and actions.