Everything We Need

“Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the

righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God

and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things

that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him

who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us

exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you

may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption

that Is in the world through lust.”

     2 Peter 1:1-4 (NKJV)

Believers have been given “exceedingly great and precious promises” by our faith in our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Through His divine power, we have “all things that pertain to life and godliness” and through knowledge of Him, we may be partakers of His divine nature. 

What great promises to start the new year!  Who doesn’t want to begin afresh knowing that we have everything that we need for life and godliness?  But we can’t just rest on these verses and conclude it’s up to God to do all the work and that somehow we’ll obtain perfection in our Christian walk without effort on our part.  No, we have responsibility to appropriate these promises and apply them (see 2 Peter 1:5-7).

 What does this look like in daily life?  Prayer and the reading and study of God’s word, because they help us increase in our knowledge of Him.  Dependence and trust in God, because we need to keep our eyes and hearts on Him for it is only by His power that we can live the Christian life.  Listen for the Holy Spirit within us and respond to conviction, prompting and checking with obedience because that is how we grow in our walk of faith.

This is a good time to dedicate or re-commit yourself to Jesus Christ, to acknowledge Him as Lord and resolve to live and work for Him this year.  After all, it’s because of Him that we have been given everything we need to live out these exceedingly great and precious promises in 2020 and beyond.

Thursday Devotional - Goals for 2020

Have you made some goals for this coming year? How well did you do at your goals from last year?

Joe, the kids and I have talked about our goals for this year, but we haven’t written them all down yet (maybe later today!).

Yesterday, my Mom brought out some of our goals from when my sisters and I were younger and read off some of them (go skiing, play a family game a week, read the Bible more, share the gospel with at least one person, etc.). It was fun to hear what some of our childhood goals were. Sometimes we even wrote goals for other family members (i.e. for Mom and Dad to have another baby or for baby Mary to learn how to walk)! 😊

God has a goal for us to drink less milk and eat more solid food:

Hebrews 5:11-14 ¹¹ We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. ¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

We eat more solid food from God’s Word by studying and applying it daily. Reading these devotionals or a chapter of the Bible daily isn’t beneficial unless we use it and put it into practice (“constant use,” as verse 14 says). I’ve learned that journaling what I’ve learned and how I plan to apply it is helpful.

What goals will you and I set for this year in line with God’s goals?

Happy New Year!

Alice