A FULLY PRODUCTIVE LIFE Hebrews 10:14 Do you have a vision for your life? Are you purposeful? Are you productively working toward things of eternity? Once we have trusted Jesus as our Savior and asked the Lord into our lives, we are given everything we need for life and godliness, and the Holy Spirit lives inside of us (2 Pet. 1:3). That doesn’t mean that instantaneously we are perfect in the sense that we never make mistakes. It means that we are saved instantaneously. We are washed clean. We are forgiven. Now it is time to let that grow—in our sanctification and in our purity. Peter tells us that in order to grow and build our new lives in Christ, we should make every effort to add to our faith six building attributes: goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, brotherly affection, and love (2 Pet. 1:5–8). Christian character is intentionally pursued, not passively received. We have to intentionally pursue what we are wanting our Christian character to be (Rom. 6:19). You don’t just show up at church, sit down, and all of a sudden become more Christian. The process of growing is participating in worship. It is participating in the message. It is listening. It is trusting. It is knowing. It is letting God do His work in you and through you that makes the difference. You don’t just become a car because you are standing in a garage. You don’t just say, “Well, I am a believer because I went to church.” When you trust in Christ for salvation, you start a new relationship with Him. Then you begin to grow in this relationship. That is why Peter says that in order to grow, he wants us to add to our faith in these other six ways. Don’t think about building with these six attributes as a serial effort. You don’t need to wait to achieve one and then, once you get past 101, move to 201 and then to 301 and on and on. This is more like putting them all together in the blender and hitting blend. This is more like a stew. This is a recipe. All of them are happening in our lives in different ways and at different points in time. We are growing in all these ways, sometimes simultaneously. It is a mix. While we grow, we put all these things together. For further study: 2 Peter 1:5–8 Additional references: Romans 6:19
MARCH 7