There are times when I love reading the Bible due to the rich treasures that fill my soul. Then there are times when I find it very difficult to read the Bible due to my own busyness and clouded heart. At other times, I find the Bible difficult to read because its truth hits too close to home. When this happens I have a choice to make: Ignore the truth and stop reading, OR allow the truth to change me.
Thankfully, I make the right choice most of the time:) Recently I came across one of these “hard to swallow” passages of scripture. Quite honestly, the text was more alarming to me than it was hard to swallow. 2 Timothy 3:1-4 says, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God -” All of us can probably say “ouch” to that!
As serious and “close to home” as those first four verses were, what really alarmed me was verse 5. It says, “having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” The tendency is to say, “glad that ain’t me!” and move on. However, what if it were us? What if we are those people that have a form of godliness, but deny the power of God? What if that were us on Sundays? What if that were us when we serve in ministry? What if that were us as we lead our homes? What is that were us on our jobs and before our friends?
The truth is each of us has a “form of godliness.” The real question is does that form deny the power of God or facilitate the power of God in our lives? I hope it does the latter and not the former!
Seeking to NOT deny the power of God,
Jeff Powell
