What would you need to live a life that is even more godly than you are living right now? It can be easy to think that if we just had more time, better circumstances, or more self-control, then we would live the godly life that God expects us to live. Of course, we all struggle to come up with the time; we can’t control our circumstances; and if we had an endless supply of self-control, we would all have six-pack abs!

Yet Peter writes to the believers in their own busy, troubling, and tempting world saying the amazing truth that we already have everything we need for living a godly life. All we need for that kind of life is not a gift we conjure up and give to God, but all of it is a gift from God to us. And there is a way to receive all we need for living a godly life from God: When we come to know God, we will get everything we need to live a Godly life.

How do we come to know God and receive all we need for living a godly life? It starts with God revealing some of his incredible character and promises in his Word and Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. When we catch a glimpse, we begin to see how they are for us personally, and we are called closer and closer to him. The more we know him, the more we trust him, the more we come close to him, the more we can know him, and on and on it goes.

That lights the fire and gets it burning, but the gasoline gets poured on when our experience of God’s love in our hearts and minds overflows into loving actions. Suddenly we find the time to draw closer, we find God in our good and bad circumstances, and the strain of self-control feels more like being distracted from our temptations by the presence of God.

Questions for reflection:

  1. How might God be revealing his glorious and excellent character to you? What is he showing you about himself? If you are not sure, where can you catch glimpses of his goodness and hear God’s promises this week?
  2. What response to God’s promises do you sense God is calling you to do this week that could be like pouring gasoline on the fire of your faith?