WATCHWORD:
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. 10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:3-11
Meditation:
Tough Stuff
See that little three-letter word in verse 5… add. Powerful little thing, based on what follows. Look at all those behaviors as a way to build up your faith. That powerful little word means that we have to do something. There are times when we are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can.
Did you get that? God will not do but we can. Oswald Chambers, in My Utmost for His Highest, makes the distinction clear: “We cannot save nor sanctify ourselves — God does that. But God will not give us good habits or character, and he will not force us to walk correctly before Him. We have to do all that ourselves. That is the tough stuff that the Lord has told us we must do. In Philippians 2:12 God tells us that we must work out our “own salvation which God has worked in us.” The tough stuff.
Back to that little word, add. It means that we must get into the habit of doing things, and we know that this will be difficult. To take the initiative is to make a beginning, to instruct ourselves in the way we must go. Here’s the caution: beware of the tendency to ask God the way when you know it perfectly well. It’s up to us to take the initiative, stop hesitating, take the first step.
Chambers goes on to say, “act immediately in faith on what God says to you when he speaks. If you hesitate when God tells you to do something, you are being careless, spurning the grace in which you stand. Take the initiative yourself, make a decision of your will, and make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you. Make it irrevocable.”
Here is the tough stuff, made easy. Get into the habit of carefully listening to God about everything. Develop a habit of finding out what he says, and follow it. Then, if a crisis comes we will instinctively turn to God, and we will know that His door will always be open to us because of the habit we have formed. We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we have not yet been.
In short, we must bloom where God has planted us. So you and I must get on with the tough stuff. Amen.
Closing Prayer:
Help us Heavenly Father to hear you more clearly when you speak to us, and to act on what you instruct us to do, even if the work is hard. Give us the strength, Lord, and the wisdom to act according to your will and to follow whatever direction you have given to us, even when it seems to run counter to our thoughts and ideas. Help us to realize, Lord, that there are things that only You can do and there are things that will not be done unless we do them. This is what you have given us. Help us to follow that understanding. We offer these prayers in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
