Friday, January 3, 2020

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.

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