Fully Secure

Read: 2 Peter 1:3-11

He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. 2 Peter 1:4

IN WORD

In spite of God’s lavish assurances, many of us are desperately insecure in our relationship with Him. Never mind that He has said we can participate in the divine nature. We don’t feel very divine, and our old nature seems to dominate. So we accept that perspective, try to develop our character, fail often, and lament our shortcomings as if the divine nature were impossibly removed from our grasp.

Check yourself on this. Do you spend more time regretting your mistakes than thinking about opportunities? Is your discipleship more about getting over sin or advancing the Kingdom? Do you approach God asking what you need to stop doing rather than what you need to start doing in order to conform to His nature? If you’re constantly dwelling on your faults, you probably haven’t fully accepted His forgiveness. More than that, you likely haven’t noticed the opportunities He offers. That’s insecurity.

God isn’t looking at what you’ve done or haven’t done. He’s looking at the doors that are open in front of you, waiting for you to walk through them. See His Kingdom, even the part about conforming to His nature, as an adventure rather than a burden, and the obstacles that drag you down will grow smaller and smaller. You won’t have time to focus on them. The precious promises of God will keep drawing you forward into ever-increasing glory.

IN DEED

Shift your thinking about God and His Kingdom from “have to” to “get to.” Don’t think about the sin that weighs you down. Think about the divine nature you get to enter into. Don’t think about what you have to live up to. Think about what you get to receive. Perspective makes all the difference when it’s anchored in your true identity in God.

ADDITIONAL READING: 2 Corinthians 1:20

All our salvation consists in the manifestation of the nature, life, and Spirit of Jesus in our inward new man.

WILLIAM LAW