Add to Your Faith

The snow is falling and blowing all around. The promise is that the wind will turn bitterly cold; the temperature falling to the single digits. I am encouraged and warmed by what I read last night; a goal and a promise:

2 Peter 1:5-11

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

You see, we should all be in a constant reforming of ourselves...not that we can save ourselves, but that we can strive to please God and can do so when we follow His word. It is so full of promises. Hold your cup out and God will fill it.

The New Year

As I place a new calendar on my desk, I am reminded of the countless days ahead. At times each day can feel and look the same; a repeat of failure or stagnation. At times, a person can look out on the ocean of a brand new year and feel like she is drowning in obscurity and uselessness. An insignificant lap of water in the ocean of waves...

And then I look at this calendar; something I made months ago. Each month of the year I pasted a verse from the book of Psalm and January's verse is most significant:

Psalm 3:3-5

"But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. 4 I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. 5 I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me."

It is a new year. It is time to walk in full faith; knowing that God, the maker of all life, is listening when we pray. It is time to stand like grown men and women, ready to walk fully in the will of God; not continue to crawl, like infants wanting always the easy way. Life is hard. It was never promised not to be; yet with God leading us, with walking in his will, how can anyone go wrong?

James 1:5-7

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord."

It is time to stop being tossed by turbulent seas. It is time to stop wavering in faith. It is time to look, listen, and believe that God is all he says he is, and that we (being saved through acceptance of Jesus Christ) are God's children. A father takes care of his children. How much more so does God, our Father, take care of us?