Effective & Productive Godly Lives

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. ~ 2 Peter 1:3

I take this verse as saying if we have knowledge of (or in other words, a relationship with) Jesus, then we will have all we need for our lives and all we need to live godly lives.

So then the question becomes how do we have a relationship with Him? I would answer that with another question. How do you cultivate any relationship? You must spend time with the person, put aside your selfish desires and ambitions in order to listen to them and get to know them. Take the time and make the effort to learn and understand their mind and heart.

So, my next question is are we spending time regularly with Jesus? AND is that time spent talking about us or putting ourselves aside in order to truly know His mind and heart?

2 Peter 1 goes on to say we should make every effort to add to our lives the following things:

• faith
• goodness
• knowledge
• self-control
• perseverance
• godliness
• brotherly kindness
• 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. ~ 2 Peter 1:8

I think this is one of those circles that build upon themselves. Notice it says to possess these in increasing measure. That means we can always use more, we should always seek more.

Spending time getting to know our Savior will increase these qualities in our lives as we know Him better and give Him more control of our lives. Having these qualities increases our ability to know Him better - it is a never ending circle.

As sinful humans we are not able to possess these qualities without our Savior so the best way to get this cycle going is to spend regular time in the Word, in prayer and fasting, in worship in order to see God's heart. As we begin to understand and follow His heart, these qualities will grow in us and we will become effective and productive members of God's Kingdom.