Endurance Run
The path to eternal life begins with a call.
Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you. - Second Letter of Peter 1:1-11
Peter tells us the work we need to do to stay on the right path begins with out confirmation of the call.
We have to acknowledge the call and then hold onto that faith through our actions.
So, the work of being a Christian begins with our confirmation of the call. And we grow from there.
Every act of faith reinforces that faith, it strengthens our belief and gives us depth of understanding who we are as Christians.
The steps we take on the path to Christ eventually lead to love of one another, which is what He taught us.
But we don't start out there. We begin with faith and support it with goodness.
Our faith informs our actions and our actions show how good we are. And we rise up from there with knowledge and self-control, keeping ourselves disciplined within our faith.
The longer we can endure, the closer we get to being godly and once we make ourselves over in God's image, we can treat each other affectionately.
And this leads to love.
So, our confirmation of our faith is the starting gate on our endurance run that leads to victory with Christ.
No one said it was going to be easy. But we know it is worth the effort.
More to come...