Called to Grow

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. I'm Sheridan Voisey and I've titled our reading, Called to Grow. The sea squirt is a strange creature. Found attached to rocks and shells, it looks like a soft plastic tube waving with the current. Drawing its nutrients from the passing water, it lives a passive life far removed from its once active youth. The sea squirt starts life as a tadpole with a primitive spinal cord and brain that helps it find food and avoid harm. As a juvenile, it spends its days exploring the ocean, but something happens when it reaches adulthood. Settling on its rock, it stops exploring and growing. In a macabre twist, it digests its own brain.

Spineless, thoughtless, flowing passively with the current. The Apostle Peter encourages us not to follow the sea squirt's fate. Since maturity for us means taking on God's nature, you and I are called to grow. Grow mentally in our knowledge of Christ. Spiritually in traits like goodness, perseverance and self-control, and practically by exploring new ways to love, offer hospitality and serve others through our gifts. Such growth, Peter says, will stop us from living ineffective and unproductive lives. This calling to grow is as vital for the 70 year old as it is for the teenager. God's nature is as vast as the ocean.

We've barely swum a few feet. Explore his unending character. Take new spiritual adventures. Study. Serve. Take risks.

Grow. Today's scripture reading is from 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 to 9. 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 near sighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Let's pray together. Father God, I find it astounding that Peter would use those words, that we are called to participate in your divine nature. Lord, we want that today, to grow more and more into your likeness and into your goodness.

We don't want to be like the sea squirt, passively going with the flow. Would you fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit today, who yearns for us to take new adventures with you and will empower us to do so. Lord, we open ourselves up to Him and look forward to new possibilities of loving, serving, and growing. We pray this in Jesus' powerful name. Amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.