I love that God’s Word is alive and active. Hebrews 4:12 (one of my favorite verses in all of Scripture) uses these exact words to describe the Word of God. It’s not a dusty old book of good ideas. It’s not a compilation of compelling stories. It’s not outdated or irrelevant, and it certainly is NOT beyond or above our understanding. God wrote a book, and He addressed it to us. Therefore, He wants us to know and understand it. He wants us to know and understand Him through it. It might take a bit of work, intention, and yes, even study on our part, but it’s possible for us to get it!

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5

This verse is one with which I have become VERY familiar. It’s a verse I memorized years ago, and it is a verse that I have frequented since. It’s a verse that I regularly point others toward, and it’s a verse that has very much shaped my walk with the Lord and my pursuit of Him. Still, reading it this morning in my Bible study shed a whole new light on it for me. Again, God’s Word is alive and active. This verse is packed into a passage that is most frequently referenced when talking about spiritual warfare. It’s within a passage that links directly to Ephesians 6:10-18, the well-known passage on the Armor of God.

Read the verse again for yourself. I love that last part—“to make it obedient to Christ.” This short little phrase tells us why we would even try to take our thoughts captive in the first place, why we would even try to think like Christ, and ultimately why we would even try to pursue godliness. Are you ready for it?

Because it’s all about intimacy with God.

Did it ever occur to you that God doesn’t just want you to fight the spiritual battle just for the sake of victory? Yes, He does want us to be victorious over our very real enemy, but He’s actually after far more FOR YOU than just a win. He’s after YOU. You see, in the process of the battle, He intends for us to get to know Him. It is in the fight that we come to know the One who gives us the strength to fight in the first place.

And this journey towards godliness and righteousness often feels just like that, right? A fight. Because everything in this world pulls us and taunts us to go in the opposite direction. And somehow, in our fast food Christian culture, we have deceived ourselves into thinking that we can just pop a “Jesus pill” at church on Sunday mornings and be “good” for the rest of the week, when in reality, if that is our approach to becoming more like Jesus, we are spiritually starving ourselves. How have we so quickly forgotten that godliness and Christlikeness requires intimacy with God?

Time spent in His Word.

Time spent on our knees.

 

Time spent in His presence.

 

Time spent in worship.

Instead, many of us, perhaps even unaware, have signed up for the quick fix. Go to church on Sundays, maybe even a mid-week Bible study or small group, and we’ll be good, right? But don’t you see, God is after more than that, friends? He didn’t die on that brutal cross so that we could live the majority of our lives apart from Him, only consulting Him when need arises. He’s after intimacy—knowing us and us knowing Him. And that only comes through time spent with Him.

Do you truly want to be more like Jesus? Do you want to look more like Him and less like yourself? It’s time to get intimate.
 

- Cherie Wagner, Arise Discipleship Lead