Week 51 - Day 3

*Last 2 weeks!  These will also be 5-day weeks instead of 6.  If you would be interested in sharing personal reflections or things God has shown or taught you through the year, please email me at ejmushlock@gmail.com .

2 Peter 1-3

*Click here to read this passage:

2 Peter 1-3 YouVersion(NIV)

“... You may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”  “… Will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

These are two things I certainly want – to participate in His divine nature and to be effective and productive as a follower of Jesus.  Peter reminds us that God gives us everything we need to live a godly life.  “He has given us great and precious promises.”  It says in the New Living Translation, “In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.”

How do we respond, how do we get to participate in His divine nature, and how do we become effective and productive?  As it is always consistent in the Bible, faith comes first.  Believe in Jesus and that He died for your sins.  But then it says to add to your faith.  Once again I like the New Living Translation of these verses that say: “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.”

Moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, patient endurance, godliness, brotherly affection, love … we are to strive to be like Jesus.  Peter says that those who fail to develop in these ways are like a blind person; they’ve forgotten they’ve been cleansed from their own sins.  As a follower of Jesus how you live your life matters.  Every choice you make on a daily basis from the words you choose to say, to whether or not you choose to grow in knowledge by studying the Bible, to how you treat the people you are around – it all makes a difference.  The more we become like Him, the more we get to experience His great promises and His divine nature and the more we get to impact the world.