Growing in God’s Grace

It's time for today's encouragement from the Our Daily Bread devotional.

Our reading is titled, Growing in God's Grace, and it was written by Alison Keita. The English preacher Charles H. Spurgeon lived life full throttle. He became a pastor at age 19 and soon was preaching to large crowds. He personally edited all of his sermons, which eventually filled 63 volumes, and wrote many commentaries, books on prayer, and other works. And he typically read six books a week. In one of his sermons, Spurgeon said, The sin of doing nothing is about the biggest of all sins, for it involves most of the others.

Horrible idleness. God save us from it. Charles Spurgeon lived with diligence, which meant he made every effort to grow in God's grace and to live for Him. If we're Christ's followers, God can instill in us that same desire and capacity to grow more like Jesus, to, as 2 Peter 1 says, make every effort to add to our faith goodness, and to goodness knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness. We each have different motivations, abilities, and energy levels.

Not all of us can or should live at Charles Spurgeon's pace. But when we understand all Jesus has done for us, we have the greatest motivation for diligent, faithful living. And we find our strength through the resources God has given us to live for and serve Him. God, through His Spirit, can empower us in our efforts, big and small, to do so.

Our scripture reading today is from 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 through 11. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these, He has given us His very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and to perseverance godliness, and to godliness mutual affection, and to mutual affection love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Loving God, we pray that you would give us courage and passion for the work you have planned for us today. May everything we do be done to the best of our ability, knowing that you have equipped us with everything we need to accomplish your will for us. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.