The way spiritual things work is: Since God has done it for us, now we should do it. NOT: Since God has done it for us, we shouldn’t have to do it.

This applies to just about everything except the justification by faith – and by that I mean God has paid for our sins and we cannot do anything to earn it. All we do is receive it. But once we have received, we make the effort to discipline and grow in our faith. But we do not do this alone, rather we do this depending on the Lord who will do it through us as we do it. What I’m trying to say is that spiritual maturity is not automatic. It won’t come to us without us making an effort at it.

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness.” (2 Peter 1:5-6)

Who is Peter talking to? He’s talking to Christians – those who have already received the grace of God. But that’s not the end of it. We are to apply the grace of God into our lives by making every effort we can, supplementing (or strengthening) our faith with our works. This will involving negative work as well as positive. It means refraining from certain acts and doing certain acts. It means staying away from certain places and people and going to certain places and people. It means refusing to spend time in certain things as well as being intentional about spending time in certain other things.

We have just finished watching the Olympics. What if we put in the kind of spiritual efforts that these athletes made to excel in their sport? Yet, their reward is a medal, some renown, and financial compensation. For our efforts, we will receive eternal rewards from the only eternal God.

What discipline are you engaged in to make yourself godly? What effort are you making to draw closer to God? Make every effort to do so all the while trusting that God will work in you through your effort.

PH