Everything We Need

If I could sum up this first 46 days of 2019 in one word it would be "full". We do a check in at our weekly leadership team meetings, reporting how we're feeling, and any major highs or lows so we can be sensitive to what's going on with each other. A few weeks ago I checked in as "full", because that's how I felt: full of the Spirit, full of self-awareness, full of Jesus, full of will to do better, and full of gratitude. I've felt these things before, so this is nothing new...but I've been more intentional this year, seeking to change some behaviors and habits and desiring to be a better reflection of Jesus to the world around me. Oooooo!

Funny thing though...yes, walking with the Spirit does help you not fulfill the lusts of the flesh...but it's amazing all the "little things" that have become magnified in my life that need equal attention and work. An attitude, a rumination of a not-so-great thought, "This isn't gossip if I'm just venting, right?", even a tone of voice. Yikes. I've found myself nudged by the Spirit more and more as all the stuff that makes up Jen is getting a thorough view through a clearer lens. I do not mind this process, as humbling as it is. If anything it's an affirmation of a new "life verse" or passage I've been reciting each morning. It caught my eye a few months ago.

2 Peter 1:3-11

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. ⁴ 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.

⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. ⁸ 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. ⁹ But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

¹⁰ Therefore, my brothers and sisters,^[a] make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, ¹¹ and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I could do an entire blog series on this passage. I studied it for a few months, dissecting each word and sentence, reading various commentaries and devotions for comparison, praying over it, and committing it to memory. What an abundance of richness. What I need to live a godly life I already have=I don't have to look for it, go on a retreat to discover it, or wait for the Lord to equip me with it...because it's already there. Amazing.

Still, there is work to be done on my part="make every effort" and "in increasing measure"=NOT one and done. THIS is what I'm striving for on a daily basis--to be a "good kid" to my Heavenly Father, to add more and more of the 9 virtues listed so I am effective and productive...to confirm my call and election so that no one would ever be surprised to know I'm a Christian.

Like any changes, improvements, or transformations, it hasn't been easy in some areas...and I know I'll never be "done". A devotion I read a few days ago described the Christian life as a building constantly under construction. There will always be the mess of scaffolding, dust, piles of discarded refuse, and areas where you can't quite tell what it will end up looking like in the end...but praise God He sees fit to keep building me, fine tuning, scrapping here and there, rewiring, adding a section or even taking one away. I, as always and even more so now, am trusting His plans for the outcome.