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Scripture for the day: 2 Peter 1:5-8 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thought for the day: “For this very reason;” for what reason? Peter tells his readers, all of them including you and me, that the Lord God has given them “exceedingly great and precious promises” designed to aid anyone who will claim them in their walk with Him. That’s pretty simple really. Jesus promised His Holy Spirit to comfort, guide, convict and teach for as long as we would need Him (which would naturally be as long as we live). But these promises are only effective as we claim them and put them into practice.
The promise of a Guide for our walk is indeed exceedingly great. It’s also worthless if we don’t avail ourselves of it by placing every situation, every step along the way, into His hands. Peter reminds us that, because everything we need for victory to be ours has already been provided, the worst thing we could do would be to ignore it by trying to gain the victory out of our own resources. Jesus has done His part; now the call is for us to do ours.
So, Peter warns against neglecting these promises by admonishing us to be diligent. “Pay attention! Be sober; be vigilant. Humble yourselves before God and put into practice what is given as a promise.” You’ve begun this adventure with the Lord in faith. Now, says Peter, add to that faith, virtue. Virtue here, carries the idea of courage and Christlikeness. We are to make it our goal to become more like the Savior with each passing day. We do this by adding to our faith, knowledge.
We can make whatever excuses suit us, but we are called by God, every one of us, to know Him better and better each day. We don’t have to understand everything; in fact, we can’t ever hope to do so, but victory is achieved by stepping forward, if only a few inches at a time.
When we add knowledge of the Lord to our lives, we tend to become more self-controlled. Think about this for a moment; the more I know about the solution to any given problem, the less that problem is likely to upset me. Self-control happens when I’m able to look at the bigger picture and know beyond a doubt that God has this; He’s not surprised or confused.
Self-control leads to perseverance. Again, when I know who is in charge and remember the promise of victory He’s given, I find it easier and easier to persevere. Just because the answer doesn’t come today, doesn’t meant it’s not on the way (I know, it’s a lot easier to say these things than it is to put them into practice, but our life in Christ is a journey and journeys take time).
Every challenge met, every victory won, no matter how small, builds our faith, provides confidence and moves us closer to the Master. Peter calls this process adding to everything else godliness. As we become more and more like Him, we practice the brotherly kindness He practiced and learn to love as He loved. I know, all this seems too simplistic, and all the times we’ve stumbled tries to contradict the promises we have in Peter’s letter to believers.
So, what’s the key to success, according to Peter? He worried that his readers would forget the fact that they’d been cleansed from their old sins and made righteous before the Lord. When we forget what we were, we face the danger of reverting to that place of sin. Paul consistently recounted what he’d been like before Jesus, primarily I think, because he didn’t want to take the chance he might fall back into that old life. Can we do any less?
Now go take on your world. - Bill