How do we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord? It sounds very complex; yet, nothing in the spiritual realm is hard, because Christ abides within us with all wisdom and power. Grace is favor with God that we cannot earn and do not deserve.
Knowledge is our personal growth, spiritual maturity, and discipleship in the ways of the Lord. Personal Bible study, church attendance, and prayer increases our knowledge. God gives us everything that we need to live a Godly life, because He calls us by His own glory and excellence (2 Peter 3:17-18; Ephesians 4:15; 2 Peter 1:3).
By His grace, He readily forgives our sins as we repent of them, and He helps us to grow deeper and firmer in our faith in His faithfulness. We also grow in our individual relationship with Jesus’ presence within us (1 Peter 1:8). This keeps us from sinning, and it helps us to continue to increase in our knowledge of who the Trinity is (2 Peter 1:8).
God rescues us from every evil action and brings us safely into His heavenly Kingdom (2 Timothy 4:18). As we learn who God is, and what He wants to do for us, His grace and peace are multiplied in our life (2 Peter 1:2).
We also grow in our individual relationship with Jesus (1 Peter 1:8). Christ rises within us with healing in His wings for our body and soul (Malachi 4:2), and by His divine power, He gives us what we need for a fulfilled life of holiness, calling us to walk in His glory and virtue (2 Peter 1:3,8).
As we come to know Him more, we escape the pollution of this world’s humanistic thinking and practices, and we enter into eternal life (John 17:3). Through the presence of Christ in us, we live a life that honors the Trinity of God within us (John 5:23).
We may suffer in this world of tribulation and distress, but by the grace of God, who calls us into His eternal glory through Christ in us, we are made perfect, established in His presence, strengthened in our faith, and settled in peace, even during unsettling times (1 Peter 5:10-11).
Prayer:
Father God, thank You for leading us away from temptation and delivering us from evil. We look forward to eternally abiding in Your Kingdom, and to walking in Your power and glory forever (Matthew 6:13). We could not thrive in this world without Your presence in our life both now and even until the end of the world (Matthew 28:20).
Help us to continue to grow in Your grace and to increase in our knowledge of who You are, what You want to do for us and in us, and what You mean to us. Teach us to rely on Your peace in our spirit in planning each moment of our day. We walk in Your joy, which defies human description, because it is so much more than the happiness which this world can provide for us (Philippians 4:7).
Thought for the Day:
The knowledge of who Christ is enables us to escape the corruption of this world, and it keeps us from getting tangled up and overcome by it again (2 Peter 2:20); authentic Born Again Believers flourish like a palm tree, and we grow straight, strong, and tall like a cedar of Lebanon (Psalm 92:12).
