Skip to main content

Thursday... This is truly an excellent gift!

 

2 Peter 1:3a (NLT), "By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life." 

Thursday... This is truly an excellent gift!

Christmas is such a special time. Yes there are a lot of gifts going around. Now we do celebrate God giving his son but his giving doesn't just happen during this month. 2 Peter 1:3a (NLT) says, "By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life." Now that is something to celebrate, isn't it? Yes, he gives it but we need to accept it and unwrap it.

The rest of verse 3 says, "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."


Now my wife and I can go out and buy Christmas gifts for our family and wrap them all up and put them under the tree. But they are of no use if our family doesn't come and accept and unwrap them. It doesn't matter all the time and money we have put into getting those gifts if they don't accept and unwrap them.

Verse 3 in the Amplified Bible says, "For His divine power has bestowed on us [absolutely] everything necessary for [a dynamic spiritual] life and godliness, through true and personal knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence." This is truly an excellent gift. God has given us absolutely everything necessary for a dynamic spiritual life. That is an excellent gift, isn't it? But we need to accept it and unwrap it.

Verse 4 (NIRV) says, "He has also given us his very great and valuable promises."

So what do we do? Verses 5-7 says, "So you should try very hard to add goodness to your faith. To goodness, add knowledge. To knowledge, add the ability to control yourselves. To the ability to control yourselves, add the strength to keep going. To the strength to keep going, add godliness. To godliness add kindness. And to kindness for one another, add love." 

Verses 7b-8 (AMP) says, "and in your brotherly affection [develope Christian] love [that is, learn to unselfishly seek the best for others and to do things for their benefit]. For as these qualities are yours and are increasing [in you as you grow toward spiritual maturity], they will keep you from being useless and unproductive in regard to the true knowledge and greater understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ."

This is how we unwrap the gift that God through His Son has given us. And yes, this is truly an excellent gift! Yes, yes! #todaybeginning






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday... I wonder what would happen if we didn't take the credit?

Nehemiah 6:16b (NLT), "They realized this work had been done with the help of our God." Tuesday... I wonder what would happen if we didn't take the credit? Over in the Old Testament in the book of Nehemiah it tells of a major task that through the leadership of Nehemiah was accomplished. The walls of Jerusalem had been torn down and God had laid it on Nehemiah to build those walls back up. It was definitely an almost impossible task but Nehemiah 6:15-16 says, "So on October 2 the wall was finished - just fifty-two days after we had begun. When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated. They realized this work had been done with the help of our God." Now, we so many times want to take credit for doing the impossible. It would make such a difference for us. But I wonder what would happen through us if God got the credit? Psalm 96 tells us what we are to do. Verses 2-3 says, "Sing to the LORD; praise his name. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thursday... Maybe we need this word today.

Psalm 57:1b (NIRV), "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Thursday... Maybe we need this word today. There are words in life that give us confidence no matter what we are facing. Now we have to believe them in order for them to have an impact. David wrote Psalm 57 while he was in a cave hiding from Saul who wanted to kill him and he says in the last part of verse 1, "There I will stay." It was a safe place and Saul didn't know that he was there. But he doesn't stop there. With confidence he said, "There I will stay until." And until is definitely a word of faith and confidence. "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Do we need that today? Let me give you the whole verse. In verse 1 David says, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." And that is a great place to start in times of trouble. Maybe that is what we need to pray today, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." It is so great to have someone...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tuesday... We just have trouble listening.

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." Tuesday... We just have trouble listening. Over in Jeremiah 25:4 (NLT) it says, "Again and again the LORD has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention." And Jeremiah went on to tell what was going to happen. There will be consequences if we do not listen to what God says through his Word. Now the Apostle Paul over in 1 Corinthians was having a problem with some professed Christ followers who were having trouble at listening. And we too can have problems at listening. We can think that being a Christ follower means we do a lot of finger pointing and we give up on people who don't do what we say. We can even do that in our families. But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." In verse ...
Post a Comment
Read more