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5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:5-8, ESV

Reflection

In day four’s devotional, we talked about what steadfastness looks like. It’s living free within God’s boundaries. Now, there’s something special that happens when we do that. We actually draw closer to God. The more we live fully and freely his way, the more we sense his presence in everything.

That’s why step five of building a resilient faith is centered on godliness. Godliness is having a constant awareness of God’s presence and responding to it with respect. King Solomon said it this way in Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” You see, we can’t enjoy the safety of God’s field and disrespect him at the same time without consequences. Adding godliness to our faith keeps us aligned to God, so our faith stays connected to the source.

Here’s the good news. By the time we get to step five, we’ve done some heavy lifting. We’ve made the conscious decision to reach our fullest potential in God. We’ve started learning from our life lessons. We’ve accepted the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so we are more self-controlled, and we’ve come to live in the boundaries God has set for us, remaining steadfast to our faith.

So adding godliness is more about taking each of those previous steps to the next level by deepening and expanding our spiritual disciplines. For example, we could engage in more advanced Bible studies, fast more regularly, increase serving others, or give more sacrificially. As we master one, we move on to grow in another.

Prayer

Lord, we thank you for once more again allowing your children, God, to come into this quiet moment with you and learn more about your word. God, we are trying to build a resilient faith. We are trying, God, to do our best, God, to live holy and completely for you. As we learned in today’s devotion, we need to add godliness to our faith. God, we want to pursue you and seek you and desire what you desire. So, help us to do that today.

God, allow us to strengthen our faith through those steps, God, of being more sacrificial in our giving and making sure that we’re going deeper in our studies. Whatever it is that’s keeping us from that deep relationship with you, God, we ask that you remove it and strengthen us, God, to have the relationship that you desire and know we need. God, we love you. We honor, we praise you, we thank you. In Christ Jesus’ name we pray and give thanks. Amen.

Application Question

Do you live constantly aware of God’s presence or only recognize it when you turn to him for something you need?