“… you have been
forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error
of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…”
Are
you growing? If you think about last year at this time, are you amazed at how young your
faith was and how much you have learned?...Or have you become complacent and
switched your faith to auto pilot?
You
can’t stand still in your faith. You either grow closer to God or you drift
away. Peter says that if we aren’t
growing in Christ, our life becomes unstable and our wisdom and discernment fade
as we become distracted by other things.
Centering
on God develops laser focus on things that matter, and this produces righteousness
and holiness. People will say you can’t
maintain that in the “real world” …but that is "the big lie". Our walk with God
is “the real world” …. “the fake world” is what distracts us with temporary
trinkets.
The
enemy’s goal is to make you busy - so you will become preoccupied and begin the
slow fade…But God not only says you don’t have to fade, but you should improve.
This passage forcefully warns us that lack of growth is dangerous.
Think
back to when God first opened your eyes….at a camp, a retreat, or alone in your
room…wherever it was - the only thing that has changed since then is you. God is the same…your ability to choose is the
same… and God’s desire to provide grace and knowledge is the same.
The
difference is that now you are distracted - and you have bought into the lie
that you can’t sustain holiness in the “real world”.
Like
the father of the prodigal son, God is waiting for you to turn around and “Repent
and do the things you did at first” ( Rev 2:5) Get out of the fake world that
has disoriented you and pursue the truth again.
Refocus
on community… worship… and holiness…. Resist the slow fade and don’t be
satisfied to maintain…If you are not closer to God today then you were
yesterday…you wasted yesterday.
The
question is not are you able to grow… It is, have you decided to? … The choice
is yours - but each day you don’t decide – you are deciding.
“Spiritual growth depends on two things: first a willingness to live according to the Word of God; second, a willingness to take whatever consequences emerge as a result. “
-Sinclair B. Ferguson
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