PETER'S CHOICES

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

“…choose integrity over image, truth over convenience, or honor over personal gain.” 

– John Maxwell

This makes me think of a familiar passage…

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be...

2 Peter 1:3-8 (NLT)

GOD HAS given us everything needed to live a GODLY life.  It is in His WORD. 

Just by choosing to KNOW Him and LISTEN to Him, He draws us near to Himself and when we draw near we find EXCELLENCE, TRUTH, INTEGRITY, DIRECTION and PROMISE.  Near Him we find what is needed to avoid getting dragged down into the rhetoric of the current narrative.  

It is near Him where He helps us to refine the traits that are TRULY important and TRULY worthy of “ELECTION”!

Therefore, the more time we spend near Him, the better He can share the building blocks to GOOD CHARACTER and POSITIVE IMPACT with us.

Blocks like:

Morality and the pursuit of GODLY KNOWLEDGE.

From there we find the SELF-CONTROL to manage the swirl of the seemingly uncontrollable and patience!  The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. - Lamentations 3:25 (ESV)

And as we experience His goodness in the waiting He offers us the endurance and love for the journey and for each other.

This present season with all of its scandal, allegations, lies and fakery is not a license for US, the Christian, to compromise our pursuits.  Peter was inspired to set the bar HIGH and Peter gave us clear cut instruction in this passage as to how we are to operate and the benefits!

For when we exercise things like morality, when we use GOD’s Word in place of our own in times of confusion or conflict because we know it well, when we keep our head when those around us are losing theirs, when we stay steady, endure, and love, GOD makes us MORE useful and more EFFECTIVE for what He has called us to do.

So today, choose integrity over image, truth over convenience, and honor over personal gain. Be moral, patient and loving with those around you.

Do that and the allow the character of Christ will emanate from you!

Lord KNOWS we need it! 

Love you all…

Opportunities for Hope