Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Ruth 1:16
God’s love for us is beyond comprehension. His love is so great that he “has given us everything for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).
We are a week away from the Beautiful Godliness Prayer Luncheon that our ministry is hosting. Women are excited to gather to focus on God and His ways for us for the beginning of this new year. As I prayed this morning for God to place the desire for godliness in all our hearts, I felt like David who cried:
Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
(Psalm 12:1)
Where are all the women who desire to be godly?
Where are the older women who are to be “reverent in the way they live, not to be slanders or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good’ (Titus 2:3).
Where are the younger women who are to “be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).
We want more of God, but unfortunately we’ve been tricked to think that godliness is a list of rules. A list of do’s and don’ts. Something that is unattainable.
That’s because the enemy knows something about godliness that we don’t. He knows that godliness is not about you or me.
What is godliness?
Godliness is a beautiful opportunity for you to reflect Jesus to others because of your love for God.
In the first book of Ruth, the husband of Naomi died as well as her two sons. She urged her daughters-in-law, Ruth and Oprah, to return to their families where she felt they could remarry and have children. After Naomi’s persistence, Oprah agreed and returned to her family. But Ruth chose to follow Naomi.
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you, or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16
Naomi returned to Israel with Ruth. And the rest of the story is history. Ruth married Boaz, who had a son named Obed, who was the grandfather of King David, who was an ancestor of Jesus Christ.
What I realized more than ever is the impact and beauty godliness can make in our lives, the lives of others, and the lives of generations to come.
Girl, you got this! It’s worth repeating that God has given you everything that pertains to godliness! This is your year to reflect Jesus and to walk worthy of him who called you out of darkness into the marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). A beautiful opportunity.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for giving me everything I need for godliness. I want to make every opportunity to reflect you in every area of my life this year. In Jesus name. Amen.