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Finding Peace - Part 1
Most of us read God's word. Many of us even go so far as to study it. We want to be sure and know as much as we can about the Bible. We are told in the scripture to learn as much as we can about the Bible. Faith is required for our knowledge gained through God's Word.. We read in 2 Peter about our faith and knowledge of God.
- KJV 2 Peter 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
Peter describes our faith as precious. A true commodity. A treasure that can never be taken from us. Peter refers to this faith as having been obtained. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines the word "obtain" as follows:
Obtain - 1) to gain or attain by planning and effort. 2) to be generally recognized or established 3) procure, secure, win, earn, acquire
Faith is not something that can be just given to us. We have to actually plan and make a concerted effort to obtain faith. We have to recognize faith for what it is, use it, practice it, establish our faith by making our faith become a part of our daily lives.
Faith is not owed to us. It is ours for the getting and all because of the righteousness of God and the only way this faith can become obtainable for us is through Jesus Christ and by practicing the faith that he portrayed to us through His life here on earth.
Faith that OUR God will be supplying our next breath of air, our next heartbeat is something that none of us seem to have a problem with. We live each moment as if we are expecting plenty more moments to be made available to us. No worries or cares that we will one day be out of time.
That single thought never enters our head about the next moment not coming. In having more moments of life, we have the faith that this will happen. This faith isn't hard to realize because that next breath of air is necessary for life just as the next heartbeat is and we have faith that God will provide that for us.
You have all the faith required that it will be there when needed.
Just as we should all live by the faith that God will make way for all of our needs and because of the sacrifice made by Jesus, we will one day spend eternity with Him in Heaven.
- KJV 2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
Grace and peace will be multiplied to us through our knowledge of God and of our Lord, Jesus Christ. There is only one way to gain this knowledge and that is by studying the Bible. The way to gain the knowledge of our God and our Savior is by studying God's Word.
That alone gives us the knowledge but this knowledge needs to be turned into wisdom by putting this knowledge to work in our lives. We have to live this knowledge for it to be beneficial to us.
If we put this knowledge of God's Word into action by living it through our faith, we too, just like told to us by Peter, will have grace and peace multiplied in our lives through this knowledge of the Word.
- KJV 2 Peter 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
All things that pertain to life and godliness are contained in the 66 books of the Bible. Any problem that we face has a solution to it somewhere on the pages between Genesis 1:1 and Revelation 22:21 and we have to have the faith in that just as we have the faith in our next breath of air and just as with us breathing, that faith is shown through our actions, our living the Word of God.
Just the fact of us knowing that by inhaling, we will gain the life sustaining necessity of life that is called oxygen, we have to have the faith that by living our knowledge of the Bible will bring to us multiplied grace and peace. We have to take into account one word said in 2 Peter 1:2 which is the word multiplied. - KJV 2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you.
We are already under the grace of God. Whether we are believers in God or not, whether we are Christians or not, whether we be tall, short, pretty, ugly or even pretty ugly, God has already been graceful to us. He has offered us peace that can only be found through Jesus Christ. A true peace with God that can only be had by living this knowledge of grace.
Each and every living person today has a peace in knowing that the next breath of air is available to us and we need not worry about taking any extreme measures to prepare for this element. It is here, it is for us to use and whether you believe wholeheartedly in God, He will continue to bless us with the air that we need for life here on earth.
Each and every living person today will take advantage of that grace afforded to us by God by simply inhaling and expelling oxygen at a rate of approximately 17,480 times a day and never once have any concern about it in the least.
Each and every Christian today has the peace of knowing that by their knowing, planning AND action on the knowledge of the time when God's grace shown greatest that even long after these old bodies have stopped breathing, through our faith and belief in Jesus Christ, we will continue to live with Him in paradise.
We have to know God's word, we have to believe God's word, we have to live God's word in order that we might live.
- KJV 2 Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Through our knowledge and faith and through our living the Word of God that any of us will ever escape the corruption of this world. We, out of faith, knowledge and living the Word, will not only have a greater peace about life in this old corrupt world today, we will have a better method to avoid the pitfalls. We also have a peace about the future..
Just as soon as our bodies quit breathing and die a physical death, we will slip effortlessly into the presence of God for all eternity and this is only done in living God's Word by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Okay, The Bible does say that all we have to do is believe in Jesus and we will be saved. Can you truly believe in Jesus or in anything for that matter without taking any course of action? We have to believe and through that belief, we have shown action and will know the reallity of living God's word. and will recognize and act on the reality of believing in Jesus, God's only begotten son.
- KJV 2 Peter 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
We have to, with effort, a great amount of effort, add virtue (strength in morals) to our faith. How does anyone gain strength? By exercising. Just as our muscles gain strength and tone by physical exercise, just as any sports team or athlete becomes a world champion, it requires strength, knowledge, a plan of action and this plan of action becomes that of a champion, only through exercise and constant practice.
Those that win the gold at the Olympics have more than the knowledge of the event in which they participate, they have worked hard, building up the muscles needed to be the best they can be, have made a plan on how they will be the best and have made it a way of life as they practice and workout on a continual basis, many times a day so that when they have their chance at the prize, they will not fall short.
We have to do the same with our salvation. We have to first of all have the knowledge of what is required then we have to turn this knowledge into wisdom by having used it, practiced it, made it a way of our life so that when we have our shot at the prize, we will not fall short.
We are also told in this second book of Peter, the first chapter and the 5th verse that to our faith we add virtue (moral strength) and to virtue, add knowledge.
We already have some amount of knowledge to ever start to plan on living a godly life and to this knowledge, we are to strengthen it by living it and strengthen it by adding even more knowledge to the knowledge that we already have. It is a life long process and one in which we will continue to grow every time we open the book.
We will never know all there is to know about God's Word becuase of the very nature of this great book, the more that we do know, the more we will realize the need for further study, the more we will need to exercise this knowledge to add strength which will bring about more understanding and the need to gain more knowledge by studying God's Word.
It never ends.
Just as soon as we have put our knowledge into action, turning it into wisdom and having a greater understanding, there is not a doubt in my mind that we will be able to come back to these very same verses seen now and get an even greater meaning and understanding from them.
It becomes a never ending life long process that is well worth every bit of effort.
God's Word
ya gotta learn it
ya gotta live it
ya gotta love it
and thats all there is to it.
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