iShineInMinistry

2 Peter 1:5-8 (NKJV)

…add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this age of fads, trends and other passing pop-culture mayhem, we seem to have lost our sense of true faith. We add new ideas of the “correct” way of worship, new rules on the best styles to dress modestly, new ways to try to reach Jesus and new traditions that have absolutely nothing to do with genuine faith in Christ. God did not send His only Son so that we could get saved, and then place a new set of “holy rules” on each other to define what a real follower looks like. He also did not put a timeline on the sanctification process and each person’s journey of faith…in contrast He said that the work He began will continue until the day of Christ. With this in mind, we should make sure that we are adding the correct things to our faith in Jesus and not just coming up with a new law to follow.

The scripture above tells us what should be added to our faith as we grow in our relationship to God. Virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love – If we are being virtuous, our heart will be to do what pleases the Lord, not a set of rules to follow. If we are gaining knowledge from the word, we will know how to discern what’s real and what’s just a new fad in the church. If we have self-control, we will not fly off the handle when we see something on social media that we don’t agree with. If we have perseverance, we will continue to run this race, even when things look hard and faith is the hardest route to take. When we have godliness, the desires of our heart will be in alignment with God’s will for our life. If we have brotherly kindness, we will not judge someone else’s walk with God just because they are not to the “level” we think they should be at. Finally, if we have love our desire will be to find ways to show love to others, even if they don’t return it.

I hope that we are all adding the correct things to our relationship to the Lord; let’s frequently check our hearts and motives. It’s so easy for us to get caught in the mix of trendiness that we lose sight of God. Let’s add the right things and follow after Jesus!