Seizing the opportunity to grow
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8
God made it clear that He will enable Christians to live productive Christian lives. He made available the resources they need so they could live godly lives. “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life” (2 Peter 1:3). Godliness is the destination we should arrive to after the Lord Jesus Christ started to impart to us His life. This is where transformation will take us to. By His grace, God provided us escape from the corruption and emptiness that plagued the lives of those who are not in Christ. From the text, we are admonished to grow spiritually and to appropriate the resources He provided. We are called upon to adapt our attitudes and behaviors to His. Once we have faith in Christ, our productive Christian journey should be visible. Faith should bring us to moral excellence. This is where we strive to overcome sinful desires. As God convicts us, there is a desire to grow deeper in knowledge. This knowledge of God enables us to have wisdom necessary to make wise decisions. We just don’t become frantic or frazzled when faced with trials in life. Instead we manifest self-control and a resolve to be steadfast. Once given to such attitude, the more we grow having patience and endurance. In turn, we continue to develop manifesting godly living. We now see God’s goal for us that we will live our lives for His glory. Our strong relationship with God produces a strong relationship with others. God’s love flows through us that we are willing to sacrifice personal desires so we could manifest God’s love to others. This is the spiritual growth God wants us to experience. He made available the resources we need but we should make a deliberate choice to appropriate them consistently and regularly. We can only grow in our spiritual life if we act on God’s leading and His conviction through the Holy Spirit. We must “make every effort to respond to God’s promises.” When we are not growing in our relationship with God it is not that God failed but it was us not seizing the resources He already provided.
Blessings,
Noel De Guzman
www.my-wbc.com
