Diluted Godliness...

DILUTED GODLINESS…Each of us has a definition of Godliness in our minds. And most work hard at closing the gap between that vision and our actual behaviors. But the fact remains, our God-like-ness gets undercut by our human desires at times. Here is an interesting test Paul gave to Timothy to protect the purity of his Godliness…
“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment…if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”. ~I Tim. 6:6
Wow, is it possible that godliness is mostly measured by contentment? Is it further possible that any godliness that isn’t coupled with the symptom of contentment isn’t a very good version of godliness? I don’t know about you, but I find the underpinning questions of this verse a bit disturbing. Mainly because I find to much discontentment in myself. We live in a part of the world where wealth is so available, especially when compared to the nations south of the equator. We live in the wealthy northern hemisphere. Even in these economic downturn times, people all around us are taking exotic vacations, buying houses and driving nice cars. This American reality stirs up more in us than we probably realize. A voice of comparison emerges, and those tones come across our spirituality like a fog, and they blur the motivations that Christ is endeavoring to inspire in us. Somehow we must all learn to silence that ‘comparison voice’. We can do so by verbally thanking the Lord for the food and clothes we do have. Any other response leads to one place…DILUTED GODLINESS. ~verlon