His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness 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 and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
2 Peter 1:3-4
I wanted to blog about 2 Peter 5-8. I’ve been thinking about it for several weeks now. But when I sat down to write, I first re-read the passage and knew I had to talk first about the two preceding verses.
We’ve been given everything we need, folks. Everything. There’s nothing that we need that we haven’t been given.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t always think, believe, or act like the child who has everything she needs. What an ungrateful child I am!
Let’s re-arrange the sentence. Through our knowledge of God, we have been given everything we need for life and godliness by God’s divine power. The key is in the word through. It’s only through Him that I have these things.
I need some cash before going out for the day. There’s no cash in my wallet, my husband’s wallet or stashed anywhere in the house. To get the cash I need, I’ll have to go to the place where it’s kept – the bank. I have to go through the bank in order to get the money I need. And you know what, the more cash I want, the longer it will take me!
It’s not much different with God. Everything I need is in Him. He’s the bank. I need to go through Him to get what I need, and the longer I stay, the more I’ll get.
Now please don’t hear what I’m not saying. I mean no disrespect to God, of course, and I’m not treating Him as the Great Santa Clause, spoiling us everything we want. It’s just an analogy. The point is that I’ve been given everything I need, but it is only accessible through God.
There’s so much more in these two verses, but I’m trying to keep my blogs short. What jumps out at you when you read them? Is it that He’s given us everything we need for life? For godliness? Is it God’s glory or His goodness? Or maybe it’s that these qualities caused God to give us His great and precious promises? Is it that these promises allow us to participate in God’s divine nature or that they allow us to escape the corruption in the world?
There is much to mine out of these two short verses. But what I’m taking home with me today is that God has provided everything I need for life and godliness. Lord, I want to know this and act and live accordingly. That’s faith. Today, I will live as if I have everything I need. And I’ll pursue it by pursuing God.
And tomorrow I’ll blog about 2 Peter 1:5-8.
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Nice writing style. I will come back to read more posts from you.
Susan Kishner