My
God will never ask more of me than I have to give nor will He ask me to
do more than I can do.
2
Peter 1:3-4 (NLT)
As we know Jesus
better, His divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life.
He has called us to receive His own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty
power, He has given us all of His rich and wonderful promises. He has promised
you that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires
and that you will share in His divine nature. So make every effort
to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will
produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing
God better. Knowing God better leads to
self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance
leads to godliness. Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally
you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. The more you
grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your
knowledge of our Lord Jesus, the Christ. But those who fail to develop these
virtues are blind or, at least, very short-sighted. They have already forgotten
that God has cleansed them from their old life of sin.
Acceptance is the key to our
happiness. We are trusting God is really doing what He has said He would. When
we believe God is currently completing His good work in us, life is not about
living in our own strength and understanding. We are not living in our dead
works trying to redo what Jesus has already done for us on the Cross. It is
Jesus alone that saves us, not our behavior.
As we grow in the understanding of
the real and vibrant partnership God has created each of us for; to have this
partnership realistically active in our life today we have more than hope. We
have an anticipation and a desire to live on the edge of how God is moving and
what He is doing in our life and through us as His chosen child participating
in reconciling all of creation back to God, the Father, through Jesus, our
Lord.
In all of this though we are
cautioned the enemy will try to keep us so busy we become unhealthy, neglecting
to care for the temple our body now is for the Holy Spirit living within us. We are
also tempted by focusing on working for God instead of with God. It is always
easier to run with what we think we know instead of trusting God’s perfect
timing in all things. When we do this our priorities become out of order and we
often easily forget that our family is our first and our most important
ministry as we work with God.
When this happens we always receive
the mercy and grace from our God and we can humbly ask those we love and who
love us to forgive our losing sight of their value to us. We demonstrate both
giving and receiving that love which forgives many wrongs and misunderstandings setting us free from the burden of our imperfect behavior. In all we do let us remember: True Christianity is not about being perfect, rather it is about being
perfected.
Today’s Reflection What is the Holy Spirit saying to
me…?
How
does today’s message apply to my life?…my beliefs? |