Do You Have a Plan?

2 Peter 1:1-12, NLT – This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.

I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.

 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.

 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.  And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. 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.

 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away.  Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

                We begin looking at 2 Peter today, which serves effectively as a last will and testament for the Apostle Peter.  While writing this letter shortly after his first letter, Peter is being held in Rome and is quite certain that he is about to be killed.  Most scholars believe that that did indeed happen under the direction of the Roman Emperor Nero.  Knowing his time is short, Peter writes to the same audience of churches in Asia Minor, wanting this letter to be somewhat of a memorial to his teachings in the future (1:14).  Reading through this letter has helped me feel closer to this giant of the early church and I hope it will do the same for you.

                One of the passionate hopes Peter has for the churches he is reaching out to is that they continue to grow in their Christian character.  In the passage above, he constructs a powerful visual for this growth as he describes seven Christian characters traits, one be added to the next one to the next one, etc.  The seven characteristics are moral excellence (goodness), knowledge, self-control, patient endurance (perseverance), godliness, brotherly affection, and the topper of all, love.  This list is compelling as you try to imagine someone possessing all of these characters components.  In my life, the people that I have known that displayed all these qualities in spades are my spiritual heroes. 

                So today, I’ve decided to focus on these qualities for the next season of my life.  I’m committing to reading 2 Peter 1:5-7 daily for the next year and looking for ways to align my life with these ideals.  I feel like it’s a leading from God.  To cement it, I’m asking people to help me keep these verses before me in various ways.  But I tell you that not to ask you to do it too.

                These full-of-faith qualities are indeed worthy goals for all of us to strive toward.  But for each of us, it looks different.  My encouragement for you today is to begin to develop a way that is your own.  I’ve decided to focus on all seven together, but you might only focus on one or two.  I’m involving other people, but you might keep your process to yourself.  The point is not to do what I do; the point is to be intentional about doing something to grow Christian character. 

Questions:  Do you have an intentional plan/process for growing Christian character in yourself?  If you do, is it working?  If not, why not start now?

Prayer:  God you have been working to grow our spirits since our life began.  We confess that much of that time, we haven’t been cooperating.  Help us identify one thing we could begin to do today that would grow us in the way you desire for us to grow. Amen.

Prayer Focus:  Pray for own spiritual growth and calling today.

Song:  Rest On Us – Maverick City