• Youth’s Greatest Opportunity
    The Watchtower—1985 | August 15

    • 8, 9. (a) What is godly devotion? (b) What is your greatest opportunity, and why is effort needed to take advantage of it?

      8 What is this godly devotion? It is personal attachment to God springing from a heart stirred by deep appreciation of his appealing qualities. While “godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28) means primarily reverential dread of doing anything displeasing to God, “godly devotion” is a response of the heart that will move you to live in a way that pleases God because you love him.c Such a quality of the heart leads to an “intimacy with God,” a personal relationship wherein you sense his approval and help. (Job 29:4) The opportunity to have this personal friendship with God is more valuable than anything else that may be offered to you.​—Compare Jeremiah 9:23, 24.

      9 Does having godly parents or getting baptized as a Christian automatically bring about this relationship with God? No, because sincerity of heart must be cultivated, along with other Christian virtues. (2 Peter 1:5-8) You must become a person ‘whose heart impels’ him to render “deeds of godly devotion.” (Compare Exodus 36:2; 2 Peter 3:11; Colossians 3:22.) Though reared from infancy in the way of the truth, Timothy had to develop godly devotion. Today, too, rigorous effort is necessary, yet this godly devotion will prove to be “a means of great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:6)

  • Youth’s Greatest Opportunity
    The Watchtower—1985 | August 15

    • c “The spontaneous feeling of the heart [toward God]” is how the Lexicon by Edward Robinson defines the original Greek word eu·seʹbei·a. J. A. H. Tittmann, in his Remarks on the Synonyms of the New Testament, adds: “[Godly devotion] expresses that reverence for the Deity which shows itself in actions, . . . but [godly fear] indicates that disposition, which dreads and avoids the doing of any thing contrary to right, . . . [godly devotion] is the energy of piety in the life.”