I'm both excited and challenged with some fresh perspective on some of God's truth. Let me get straight to the point.
God is good. His goodness is so good that we can't get our head around it. It's a goodness that exceeds both our understanding and our expectations. He's so good, that David blurts out in Psalms 34, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." In other words, "Try it, you'll like it."
This good God loves us with a never-ending, faithful love AND he invites us to live life in his presence. The cross of Jesus has pulled back the curtain and made it possible for us to live life in God's presence. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they hid from God's presence, but because of the death of Christ on the cross for us, we have been invited to "Draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith." (Hebrews 10:22) Don't miss this crystal clear invitation. We have been invited to live in God's presence, to experience his presence in every aspect of life: not just when we pray or read the Bible; not just when we go to church: but also when we work or play or brush our teeth. Can you fathom this? The God of the universe, wants to share his life with us!!
We've already seen the first two steps to enjoying God's presence in Hebrews 10. First, we must sincerely want to be near him. Second, we must be fully assured that he accepts us in his presence because Christ's blood has cleansed us from our sin.
Is there something else we are missing? Yes, there is, and it comes with a clear understanding of a rather mysterious word in the New Testament. That word is godliness. Some have taught that godliness is living by a certain set of rules or commands. Others have taught that godliness is simply reverence and respect for God.
This second idea does scratch the surface of what it means to be godly, but there is more. The Greek word for godliness in the New Testament is "eusebia", which literally means, "good respect" or "good reverence". But to say that godliness is summed up by having a healthy fear of God keeps us from seeing the beauty and depth of this word and it also makes us miss out on God's great invitation to us.
Follow me on this. Paul challenges Timothy to "train yourself to be godly." So we are to train ourselves to have a "good reverence" towards God. To revere someone is to stand in awe of that person. This God before whom we stand in awe, knows everything, is present everywhere and is all powerful. To be godly we need to connect what we know about God with our standing in awe. It is illogical to say we "stand in awe" of God while at the same time ignoring his presence in our lives all day long. To be godly is to be aware of the presence of the holy and loving and gracious God everywhere we go. The degree of our godliness is in proportion to the degree of our awareness of his presence in our lives. You could say that to be godly is to be "God-conscious", to be conscious of God's presence in everything we do.
Unfortunately, we face an obstacle in our pursuit of "God-consciousness". As descendants of Adam and Eve, our natural tendency is to avoid God's presence, or at least to subconsciously forget about it. We do this because being in the presence of a holy God reminds us of our sin. But PRAISE GOD! That has all changed through the cross. Because of the cross, we can draw near to God in full assurance that he accepts us in his presence. Yes, being in the presence of our holy God will make our sin more obvious, but as we walk in his light and confess our sin, "he is faithful and just and will forgive us sin and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
And here's where the training part comes in. Paul tells Timothy to train himself to be godly, that is "God-conscious", because we are accustomed to trying to do life without God. Before we put our trust in Christ, it was our normal pattern to ignore God's presence everywhere. But now that we can draw near to God with bold confidence, we have to relearn to live in God's presence, to be aware of his presence in everything we do. We can do this by staying in conversation with God throughout the day and inviting him to live his life in every area. Thank him when things go well; ask him to show his life through you as you encounter various circumstances; ask for his wisdom and help, even when you think you can handle something on your own.
The best part, Paul says, is that being godly has value for this life and the life to come. It is advantageous to us here and now to live fully aware of God's presence. Even better, this is a win-win with God. He is honored by me acknowledging his presence in every aspect of my life and I am blessed by having his presence and life flow through everything I do. This is the biggest win-win imaginable and it is the greatest invitation of all time.
