Theme of the Week: A Life of Purpose
Bible Verse: “… and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness.” 2 Peter 1:6 ESV
Scripture Reading: 2 Peter 1:6
Your character has the power to make or break your influence as a man. The list is long of men who appear to be great and wise, but their character does not back up their reputation. Poor character always catches up with you, and it rarely ends well.
As you continue to develop spiritual muscles in order to be fruitful and effective with your life, Peter doesn’t want you to finish with being good or having knowledge. He wants you to build the muscles of godly character. Three muscles about your character show up here: self-control, perseverance, and godliness.
Mark Buchanan describes self-control as: “The strength to hold yourself back; it’s the ability to see, without distortion or illusion, what’s really going on, and the wisdom to act in light of it.”1 The strength to hold yourself back. Think about moments throughout your day when you are faced with all kinds of decisions to act. Those are moments to grow your muscle of self-control.
Perseverance is the ability to hold your ground. When you face disappointments and failures, and life is hard, don’t give up. When it appears your life and actions are not making a difference, don’t quit. In a video game generation where we just hit the reset button when we fail, this muscle especially needs to be developed.
Perseverance is only good if your life is pointed in the right direction. Standing your ground on things that don’t matter (or are just wrong) is a foolish way of living. This is why Peter finishes this section on character by focusing on godliness. Buchanan describes this as “a heart set completely on God, his kingdom, and his purposes.”2 Don’t skim over that sentence because the words sound familiar. There are many things that we think are God’s purposes that don’t often line up with what God actually reveals to us about himself in the Bible. Building this muscle takes work to drown out the noise around you.
Your character matters. Make every effort to build these muscles.
1 Buchanan, Mark. Hidden in Plain Sight: The Secret of More. Thomas Nelson, 2007. p. .
2 Ibid. p. .
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