January 19
‘Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.’ 1 Timothy 4:7
Bible reading: 1 Peter 2:7-10 (Go to the Bible passage)
Everybody presses himself to achieve something in society. But how many contemplate what value their effort has for eternity? Paul tells Timothy that he must train himself to be godly.
Some people look upon faith as an asset, something that you must apply yourself to for your own benefit. But then they forget that faith is a gift of God, not a keepsake or a ticket to heaven, but a gift to live by here on earth.
Paul says, ‘To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me’ (Colossians 1:29). And for this enormously purposeful struggle a lot of training is necessary, training to be godly. We must make every effort to learn to stand in awe of God.
And we will learn this when we gladly declare His praise (:9) among ourselves rather than talk about our own good deeds. It would be a good thing for all of us to wonder, how much we have been talking about ourselves lately, and how much - or how little – about the great deeds of Him, Who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light (:9). If - from now onwards - we pay more attention to God’s work in our lives, we will find that He will become greater and greater and ever more impressive. Then we will be increasingly amazed that He accepts us, with all our insignificance and trivialities, that He wants to make us as His children into a royal priesthood in this dark world.
With what great calling He has called us in Jesus Christ our Lord! In childlike awe of this we will find that our whole manner of speaking will be changed by it.

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