respectable sins: ungodliness...

i have been reading a book that has called so many of my older brother/self-righteous/pharisee sins. it is SOOOO good. i highly recommend it! the book is called respectable sins by jerry bridges. bridges writes about sins in our lives that we tolerate and let ourselves and others get away with it. i will attempt to blog about each chapter and sin that bridges addresses, because, well, it is that good.

ungodliness
bridges starts off differentiating between ungodliness and unrighteousness using romans 1:18.

"ungodliness describes an attitude toward god, while unrighteousness refers to sinful actions in thought, word or deed."

this nails all of us who are pharisees at heart. my outward actions may look really good, but what about my attitude. bridges goes on to drive his point home. here are some of my favorite quotes from the chapter:

"ungodliness may be defined as living one's everyday life with little or no thought of god or god's will, or of god's glory, or of one's dependence on god. you can readily see, then, that someone can lead a respectable life and still be ungodly in the sense that god is essentially irrelevant in his or her life."

"now, the sad fact is that many of us who are believers tend to live our daily lives with little or no thought of god. we may even read our bibles and pray for a few minutes at the beginning of each day, but then we go out into the day's activities and basically live as though god doesn't exist. we seldom think of our dependence on god or our responsibility to him. we might go for hours with no thought of god at all. in that sense, we are hardly different from our nice, decent, but unbelieving neighbor. god is not at all in his thoughts and is seldom in ours."

"do we consciously and prayerfully seek his glory in all we say and do in our most ordinary activities of the day? or do we actually go about those activities with little or no thought of god."

"...we live so much of our ordinary lives with little or no thought of god or how we might please and him. its not that we consciously or deliberately put god our of our minds. we just ignore him. he is seldom in our thoughts."

i am not sure about you, but i have found a new sin to repent from each day! there are so many times i cruise through a day with little or no thought of god. this shows that i do not think i need him, i think i can do this alone, i do not think he is in control, i think that thinking about something else is a better use of my time, etc. yet i like to judge those whose sins i can see. yikes.
"because ungodliness is so all-encompassing it will help to identify specific areas of life where you tend to live without regard to god. these might include your work, your hobbies, your playing or watching sports, and even your driving. "

after this chapter i have had to do some serious repenting. the lord has been showing me that when i walk in his spirit, my burden really is much lighter. when i don't let my mind wander or ignore the lord, i actually see him working and moving and am able to delight in him. i wish i could tell you that i am never ungodly anymore, but that will never be the case, this side of glory, but my life already feels more satisfied when i think more about him!