Read the Word:
Titus 2:11-15
Meditate on the Word:
I love the way the English Standard Version puts verse 12, “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” It is a bit of a reminder to me that we are not yet fully there. The age in which we currently live actually encourages people to revel in ungodliness and live a life that is anything but godly. Denying yourself, we are told, is not being true to yourself. We are encouraged to be our “authentic selves” on the shifting sands of loosening morality. We are encouraged to do whatever we want, even if it flies in the face of the One who created us.
But what if renouncing godlessness and worldly passions is being our authentic selves? What if that is being true to who our Creator designed us to be? After all, if God sent His Son to “redeem us from all lawlessness,” shouldn’t we live as if we are, in fact, redeemed from this lawlessness? In my much younger days as a believer, I did not want people to think me weird. I was influenced more by what others thought than the Lord who redeemed me. Yet, if we are living a life filled with the Holy Spirit, our lives are going to by nature look different than those around us. It is good to, as author Mike Frost says, keep Christianity weird. It is after all, the only way for us to be a “people for His own possession, eager to do good works.”
Pray the Word:
Ask our Lord today to reveal any ungodliness that you need to renounce. Then, do it.
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