To everyone who shares with us in the privilege of believing that our God and Savior Jesus Christ will do what is just and fair.
I pray that God will be kind to you and will let you live in perfect peace! May you keep learning more and more about God and our Lord Jesus.
Living as the Lord’s Followers
We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God’s own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness. God made great and marvelous promises, so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world.
Do your best to improve your faith. You can do this by adding goodness, understanding, self-control, patience, devotion to God, concern for others, and love. If you keep growing in this way, it will show that what you know about our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful.
2 Peter 1:1-8 Contemporary English Version (CEV)
If ever we begin to doubt that we can "improve our faith," God inspired Peter to write these words for us to read more than 2,000 years later. Peter was a man who walked with Jesus for three years and denied Him three times just before He was crucified. Many believe that is why Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him, and told him three times to "feed My sheep." Then Christ filled Peter with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:8) and sent this fisherman out to "fish for people" (Mark 1:17).
God gives us what we need to live a life that is pleasing to Him. He asks only that we do our best. As He examines our hearts, He knows our weaknesses but He also knows His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses when we put our trust in His help. It is God's nature, which we receive through His Spirit when we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, that empowers us to do good and to love others. We have an enemy in this world who seeks to destroy us and without God's help, we are already defeated. Our freedom in Christ comes from knowing our Lord Jesus Christ. It took a lot for Peter to truly know and believe the Man He followed for all that time. Even after all the miracles Peter witnessed Jesus perform, it still took the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus for him to truly understand what was really going on. It took the Holy Spirit indwelling Him. Peter bids us to keep learning. He encourages us to keep growing. We are to keep adding to our faith "goodness, understanding, self-control, patience, devotion to God, concern for others, and love."
If it sounds like a lot of work, we must remember that we don't work alone. Anything we do that is pleasing to God, that will give our lives meaning and fulfill His purpose for our existence, He will empower us to do. That's His nature.
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