Supplement Your Faith

God is perfect. God made us in His likeness. But, we live in a fallen world. It is imperfect. We are imperfect. So God gave us a way to become perfect again, to be able to approach Him. Grace is the way and faith in Jesus is the path. Faith seems like a simple thing, like a spark. The first step forward toward God is faith. The faith of a child can be enough to save us. Salvation is important. But once we experience saving grace, we have only just begun. There is more. There is sanctifying grace. It is the grace that moves us beyond accepting Jesus as Lord into a deeper discipleship, into fruit-bearing followers. Spiritual growth is important for believers. “God has given us everything we need for a godly life.” (2 Peter 1: 3)

We can supplement our faith with seven character traits: goodness (or virtue), knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. As we strive for perfection (Philippians 3:12-14), our witness will be enhanced, our spiritual life will deepen, our lights will shine brighter, longer, more consistently and more purely, and the grace of God will enrich us in our journeys. There is a path laid out for us here, and I want to take it, examine it more closely, and share it. I am not perfect, and I know it very well, but I want to do better, I want to increase! I want to grow! I want to go forward!

Peter calls us as believers to become participants of the divine nature; he calls us to the abundance of the knowledge of God, and he calls us to understand the preciousness of our faith. He doesn’t just call us, though, he gives us a path to walk down. He says, “You must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.” And then Peter tells us that “ if these things are yours, and are increasing among you, they will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ” We should all want to be effective and fruitful in our lives of faith. At least, we should hope to be. Our belief in Christ should lead us all to a glorious fruitfulness! This is God’s purpose for us. But these supplements are supposed to be increasing in our lives!