Serious Godliness
Matthew Henry is one of my most cherished connections. He died 308 years ago. But every morning I meet with him. He tears away the nonsense, the non-serious study and musings that don’t actually bring transformation. He regularly knocks me upside the head and awakens me from my stupor.
This morning he told me to number my days so that I will incline toward “serious godliness.” The phrase stuck with me and I’ve been thinking about it all day..
It was actually thinking of combining my days with the call to godliness that created the impact. My days are numbered so every one is an opportunity to be serious about godly living - or not.
I started to examine my day. What did I do today that I could put under the “godly” category? And was any of it seriously intent on godliness or did I just go through the motions?
I find that my days definitely are peppered with moments of real depth. In those moments I am in and with the presence of God. At these times I feel the solidness of life in Christ. He is all I want and living a godly life is my full desire.
Unfortunately, much of the day is also just more of the mundane - the busy and the necessary.
Here’s the problem for most of us. Life today does not let up so that we have the space to just be, to be introspective, to rearrange our life and thinking so that godliness has room to grow in us.
The tyranny of the urgent owns us.
Making a living.
The day to day of chores and to-dos and errands.
Social media, world events, and drama.
The never ending “emergencies” that must be attended to.
At the end of the day, there has only been a short amount of space to fit in serious godliness. And the days are flying by. I need life to slow down so that I can ponder and go deep and be like Matthew. Every morning I am in the Word, right after two cups of coffee. But, then, I am up and at life. Work calls and I answer.
I have a plan though. Now that it is warming up a bit I am going to go outside and sit in the sun for 15 minutes every morning. No reading. Definitely no email or social media. I plan to just sit with God, enjoy the fireball warming my bones and see what happens.
Will we talk? Probably. Will there be prayer? Most definitely. But, my main focus is going to be connection with the Holy One. I want to just be before Him. I want to recenter my soul on a with-God life.
I’m going to get serious about godliness in my life. It will start with intentional time with God no matter the to-do list calling my name.
We are either doing this life with God or He is just a side gig. I am numbering my days to incline toward serious godliness. This is what this life is about after all.
You can support my writing, receive exclusive, in-depth content and even Free printed versions of this book when published, sent right to your door by becoming a member. Want to know more? Click here.
