Wednesday, June 1st, 2022

The tragic school shootings over the last couple weeks have devastated all of us once again. We all want this sort of evil to be defeated. While reaching out to elected leaders to voice our opinions towards government policy is a good thing, we all know that nothing moves quickly in lawmaking. So, stewing and frothing over things we cannot control, at least right now in the short term, is fruitless. So what shall we do? The Bible shows that the only way for communities to be positively impacted is for godly men and women to embrace it, take responsibility for it, and work together to bring the Kingdom of God to it. Taking responsibility for something is not posting to social media; it’s not writing to a lawmaker; it’s not even rounding up signatures in petition. Taking responsibility is first aligning ourselves under the authority of God and then working in partnership with Him to bring His ways in place of our own. God created man to work in partnership with Him, under His authority — so when we submit ourselves to Him, and seek to do things His way, turning from what feels good to the flesh, we can accomplish miracles. Why? Because it is God working through us, not us toiling on our own. So what then? How do we do this? Paul wrote to his protege Timothy to stay away from the fruitless arguments of the day and instead, focus his efforts on training himself to be godly. He wrote, “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” If we focus our efforts on training to become more godly, godly things will happen in our communities. Godliness in men brings the influence, power, and Spirit-led blessings that our world so desperately needs. Lives are changed everyday by godly men and women taking responsibility for lost, broken, and forgotten people. Today, start earnestly training for godliness, and in doing so, look around to see whom you can bring along with you.

“Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”— 1 Timothy 4:7-8