Blessings!
Today’s Promise is 2 Peter 1:5-8 CJB:
“For this very reason, try your hardest to furnish your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with perseverance, perseverance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you have these qualities in abundance, they keep you from being barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.”
Devotion:
I can’t imagine anyone saying, “I want Jesus, but I don’t want to be fruitful,” yet I see it all the time. Some people think that once you repeat “the sinners’ prayer” it’s a done deal. That grace does all the work and we are free to live as we choose. It is by grace we are saved, but the purpose of our salvation is to share in the very nature of God. Jesus made that possible, but as Peter tells us, the work is ours. We are to “try our hardest” to add to every good gift He gives us and grow in our spiritual maturity. We do this by developing an intimate relationship with our Creator through His Word, prayer, worship, and putting our faith into action. The more we pursue this intimacy, the more God’s qualities will abound to us. And the abundance of His qualities produces an abundance of good fruit!
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I don’t want to be barren. I want to produce good fruit in abundance, that others may taste and see that You are good. Help me pursue You with an unquenchable hunger and thirst, in Jesus’ name, that I may be more like You each day. The things of the world leave a bitter taste in my mouth, Lord. Help me try my hardest to add to my faith the qualities of life-giving sweetness. Amen.
Have a victorious day in the Lord!
Rebecca
