1 Timothy 6:6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain.

Have you ever thought about what godliness (or piety) in this verse actually means?

None of us is perfect, in fact most of us are as far from perfect as could be so let us not think of it as being anything like perfect.

Godliness can be seen as being closer to God’s ways; perfection is God, not His ways. Instead we should combine all of the ways together: faith, hope, love, fear, humbleness, trust… the list is actually quite long!

How about the outward showing of the inward ways God would have us to be like?

Isaiah 29:13 The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

How vain man is to think that he could ever know more than God! And that is not me judging others but me judging myself…

There are times when I think that I know so much and I want to go and tell people about all the things I have learned; and then there are times when I realise that I know so little.

God is so much more than the knowledge and wisdom all men could come up with. He extends past everything we can comprehend and stretches further than we could ever reach. How can we ever limit His ways or His wisdom?

Colossians 2:6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,

It is our faith that allows us to see the beauty, majesty and glory of Christ as our Lord and Saviour. The fullness of this glorious picture is seen because of our faith in God, Jesus and His Word.

When we stand on that faith we are not tempted to go astray and live our former earthly lives but instead turn toward Him in our daily walk; that is where He wants our focus, in Him.

Our faith makes our lives whole because we receive so much more than just a belief; we receive eternal rest in Him, gladness and joy for all eternity.