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“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 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
These are the words of the Apostle Peter, the one Jesus directly instructed to lead the other apostles back to Him after He was crucified. In this second letter, Peter wrote broadly to Christians. He’s writing to a group of believers who were experiencing some serious attacks on their faith. They faced external pressures from society to deny their faith, and internal pressure from false teachers to relax their faith so they could indulge their flesh more.
Today, you may find your faith under similar attacks. You may have family and friends who say that your faith is fake, or leaders in your church who abuse their position and treat people poorly. These kinds of situations can test how committed we are to what we believe.
Thankfully, Peter gives us a clear, 7-step approach to build a faith that can withstand even the deepest attacks.
The first step is to add virtue to our faith. Now, some translations use the word goodness in 2 Peter 1:5 instead of virtue. But this isn’t the type of goodness talked about in the fruit of the Spirit passage over in Galatians 5:22. Virtue is a kind of goodness that reflects moral excellence. It’s about living up to your highest potential and fulfilling your purpose.
You see, the first step in building a resilient faith is about choosing to rise higher than your circumstances. Yes, people may talk about you. Yes, you may see some church leaders not living right. But resilient faith rises above those challenges. It refuses to live casually and, instead, chooses excellence.
Resilience starts when we stop settling spiritually and start choosing to live higher in the Lord.
Prayer
God, we thank You today, Lord, that God, You have equipped us with what we need through the Holy Spirit, Father, to withstand the enemy’s attacks on our faith. We thank You, God, for the truth that was revealed to us, God, in Your Word about how we can build a resilient faith. And God, we appreciate and respect, Lord, that that comes with a commitment on our part, God. A commitment to up, Father God, what we are investing in and decide, Lord, that we are going to be fully persuaded and committed to doing what You’ve called us to do.
God, we come before You today seeking Your face and asking for guidance in how, Lord, to add that virtue, to be able to say, Lord, that we are doing things with excellence, rising to the occasion above our circumstances and not letting them hold us back. God, give us wisdom to know what to do, how to do, and when to do it. Give us, God, that spirit of excellence to pursue, Father, what You have called us to with all of our heart, mind, and soul. God, we ask these things and pray this prayer in Thy loving Son Jesus’ name. Amen.
Application Question
How committed are you to living right for God?