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This morning we continue our series, “Grace that is Simply Amazing” by continuing with our new mini-series entitled, “Growing in Grace.” A few days ago we started walking our way through 5-9 of Peter’s second letter. The Apostle Peter wrote, “So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books” (2 Peter 1:5-9 MSG). Today we will focus on the statement, “complementing your basic faith with… each dimension fitting into and developing the others.”
After giving us a litany of things that we should add to our faith, the Apostle Peter tells us that each of these things — good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love — fit into one another and help develop each other. It is almost as if growing in one area helps create a ‘snowball effect’ that leads to growth in other areas. The point is that once you are committed to growing in God and your commitment manifests itself in the form of disciplined action, you will not only grow in one area. Growing in love will help you develop in patience; growing in love and patience will help you become more friendly; becoming a loving, patient and friendly believer will help develop your character. I could go on, but I believe you get the point.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. God’s grace is made available to you freely. God planned for you before the world began and He, along with the plans, allocated the grace you will need to fulfill them.
2. While God makes His best available to you by grace, in order to access His best God requires you to use your faith.
3. To maximize your purpose and potential you must grow in grace, and to grow in grace you must grow in the knowledge of God.
4. The more you learn about God the more you will grow in grace, and the more you grow in grace the more you will grow and develop as a person.
5. God wants you to put in the effort required to create momentum for growth and development. Once you start growing in one area, that growth will lead to growth in another area, and then another, to the point where you are growing and developing rapidly.
6. God’s desire is that you become a well-rounded, fully developed, mature believer who is then a perfect conduit for His love, light and power to flow through. God can reach the world however He wants to, but He has chosen to reach the world through His children. You are His child. As you grow in grace you will find yourself being used of God, more and more, for His glory.
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for teaching me about Your amazing grace and unyielding love towards me. My heart is filled with warmth and peace as I think about how much You love me, and about the fact that You made plans for me before the world began. I am not mistake and I am not a copy. I am an original in You. No one else has my assignment, and no one else has my grace. I will run my race with the grace You have allocated for me. But I also know that I must grow in grace by growing in the knowledge of You. Therefore, I put in the time, energy and effort required to grow and develop into a mature believer. By faith I declare that I create irreversible momentum for growth and development. I become a mature believer as I grow in spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love. Each facet of my growth fits into and helps develop the others. I am growing daily, I notice it, others notice it, and You notice it. By faith I declare that I am a fit conduit for Your love, light and power to flow through, for all the world to see. You reach the world through me, for Your glory. I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
