July 7, 2017 GRANTED TO US
2 Peter 1:3-4: “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificence promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
Ephesians 1:18-19: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”
Do we get it? We do not attain to an understanding and knowledge of God, and a relationship with God through human reasoning and intellect. It is true that God has revealed Himself through the scriptures, but only as the Holy Spirit illuminates, or brings to life the truth of the scriptures, do we see the magnificence of what God has done on our behalf. One might say that since everything depends on whether or not the Spirit decides to illuminate the scriptures, we have no choice in the matter. We must remember that it is the desires of our heart that God takes note of. If it is our deepest desire to know God in a personal way, we will find ourselves reading the written word, and as we read, we will discover that the Holy Spirit is helping us grasp and understand the life-changing truth of the scriptures. If we are spiritually coasting through life, if we are defeated by our circumstances, if we are bored and have no passion for the things of God, then we have lost sight of, or have never known the promises that God has made to us and all that He has granted to us who believe. God is up to a lot in what He is doing in us, but the greatest thing is that His work in us and His promises to us all lead to us becoming “partakers of His divine nature.” Even in the church, we have been bombarded with the idea that we are just sinners with a bent to sin. These scriptures, along with many others, expose the error of such thinking. Even though believers may sin, they should see themselves as saints and children of God, and not sinners. God has joined us to Himself and He delights in sharing Himself with us. Now, we live with physical bodies, but at the same time we are spiritual beings who have been made new. God sees more than, and beyond the physical life we presently have. The amazing truth is that God has already given us “everything pertaining to life and godliness,” and we discover that to be true through knowing Him as He desires to be known. We tend to think of ourselves as being ‘needy,’ and that is true in that we always need Him, but we have been supplied with everything we need for life and in that sense, we are not needy. Our challenge is to pursue Him, to grow in our faith and in our knowledge of Him, to have our hearts fully turned toward Him. The promises do us no good unless we know what they are and we believe that not one of them will fail to come to pass. Let our eyes be opened just as Paul prayed, and let us see the awesome inheritance we have in Him. We are sufficient for all of life in Him!
2 Corinthians 1:20: “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes;”
Blessings, Buddy
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