The other day, I was reading 2 Peter and the following passage jumped off the page:
Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.
So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.
So, friends, confirm God’s invitation to you, his choice of you. Don’t put it off; do it now. Do this, and you’ll have your life on a firm footing, the streets paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:3-11
A few things stood out to me in this passage. First, we have been given everything we need to live a Godly life. Literally everything. It can feel like we’re failing and that we’re missing pieces to be able to serve God well, but in Him, we have truly received everything we need.
Second, the way we gain access to everything we need isn’t through working harder, praying harder, or even reading the Bible more. It’s by getting to know Jesus – not just like, “Oh yeah, I found Jesus when I got saved,” but in an intimate and extremely personal relationship. We tend to hold relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit at arm’s length. I believe part of this is because we can’t see them, and we’re very focused on what we can see with our natural eyes (I get it!).
But we haven’t been invited into a relationship like with the CEO of our company – he (or she) is up there somewhere, making decisions that affect our lives, and we might even send up messages through the management chain if we need to communicate something to them. Or an even better example might be a HOA (home owners association) – we pay our dues like reading the Bible, praying, and going to church, but meanwhile the HOA is making decisions that force us to do things we might or might not want to do. We can go to meetings and hope we’re heard, but there’s no real relationship there.
Instead, we’ve been invited into a relationship as personal and intimate as a marriage. We have the opportunity to communicate with and do life with Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit to the point where we know them – not just know what they do, but we know what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling, and what they’re going to do in any given situation because we know their motives and their personality. Through this relationship, we receive everything we need to live Godly lives.
How do we grow this kind of intimate relationship? Reading the Bible and praying help, but only when they’re done with the Holy Spirit, who reveals all truth and guides us to the Father (John 16:13). Learning to hear God’s voice and practicing hearing is another truly great way to develop a relationship with God.
Third, according the above verses, receiving everything God has for us is the foundation of the rest of life:
So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given; add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
2 Peter 1:5-7
Just practicing these keeps us from being ineffective in our walk with Jesus! (2 Peter 1:8)
