Steps That Lead to Effectiveness & Productiveness

2 Peter 1

New King James Version (NKJV)

Greeting the Faithful

¹ Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

² Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, ³ as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, ⁴ by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Fruitful Growth in the Faith

⁵ But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, ⁶ to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, ⁷ to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. ⁸ For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
¹⁰ Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; ¹¹ for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

On Sunday, my pastor spoke on the above passage.
I was reminded that just because I have put my faith in Jesus; just because I want to live my life for Him - doesn't mean that I should remain the same. In fact, I should continue to change. I should continue to grow. I should continue to "add to my faith" (verse 5).
God has placed goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness and love (and MUCH more!) at my disposal. These are some things that Peter tells us to work towards; to add to our faith. Now I have to step out; put in effort; apply myself!

[Side note from the message: Pastor Doug challenged us. He asked, "What are some of the character flaws you had last year?" This kind of took me aback. Made me question what I am aiming for; why I live. Does this question make you think?]

To add to my faith; to attain the things in this passage requires effort.
It requires me to set aside time daily to spend with the Lord.
It may even require me to put aside my wants and desires. To have times of fasting.
Prayer is essential if I want to grow and add to my faith.
And for all of this, I will need to have discipline. Much discipline!

These are some steps we can take to be more effective and productive! I hope and pray that we can apply even some of these! This is all a journey. Let us aspire to be greater servants of Christ - and most of all, to be more like Him every single day.

~Rachel