The Word To Live By: 5-21-26
Phil Waggoner
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 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 magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
2 Peter 1:2-4
The Word To Live By: My question is, what exactly is the divine nature? I understand that my nature is not to be Godly, but what is? He tells us in verses 5-8; diligent faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self=control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, unconditional love. To begin with the operative word here is diligent faith. Diligence means to show steady, earnest, and careful effort in your work or duties. It describes someone who is painstakingly persistent, and highly attentive to detail to accomplishing a task. That sounds like consistent living by and walking by faith to me. If you read those verses in the Amplified translation, they have the word develop before them. Develop diligent faith, develop moral excellence, develop knowledge, develop self-control, develop perseverance, godliness and brotherly kindness, develop unconditional love. In other words, these are not things that suddenly appear when you get born again, just like when you are born the first time you develop the skills to live and function in this world. When you make Jesus the Lord of your life and become a CHILD of God and the Holy Spirit lives in you and you have the potential to develop the nature of God. But like physically, there are things you have to do to develop. There are also things that you have to do spiritually to develop. You need nutrition physically you need the nutrition of the Word of God spiritually. “Man doesn’t live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Luke 4:4) Just like you need to exercise your physical body to grow and strengthen it, you need to exercise your faith to grow and strengthen it. Start out with easy things that you do everyday, (Being thankful, being completely honest in your dealings with others and yourself. Being patient and kind even when you don’t feel like it.) when you are consistently persistent in the little things you develop the ability to handle the big things when they come along. Take some time to think about what you can do to develop your Godly nature. And of course, then implement them.
Read through the Bible in a year: Acts 27:1-12; 1 Samuel 2:11-36; Psalms 50;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 21, John 2:14-25, 2 Peter 3
Those who guard their mouths and their tongues guard themselves from trouble. Proverbs 21:23
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160