Increasing Grace and Peace
July 1, 2023 2023-07-01 8:02Increasing Grace and Peace
Revlee Increasing grace and peace.
2 Peter 1:2
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (NIV)
There is a mode of Christianity that touts God is everywhere, and He hears the prayers of believers wherever they are so why go to church. This thought progression leads people to miss the purpose and abundant blessings of being connected to the body.
Our passage today teaches that grace and peace is multiplied to us as our knowledge of Christ increases. But how do we get this knowledge?
The Bible teaches us our knowledge of God increases when we obey His commandments and do His will. Actively living the life God calls us to gives us the opportunity to see the result of His way of life. We see deeper into the mind of God as He enjoins His power to our obedience. In this, our knowledge increases, and our experience deepens in Him. His love, power, grace, and peace move from a trickle to a rushing river within our souls. But what moves us to obey His calling for our life?
To obey, we must have faith to follow God when it doesn’t seem right or convenient. And faith comes by hearing. Hearing implies human interaction. You can read someone’s book and get a lot out of it, but to hear them teach it, you will gain even more because you will catch their heart and spirit beyond the pages of their book.
To increase our faith, we need other believers around us who know God more intimately than we do and share from the depths of their spirit what God has taught them. Then our faith increases. Our obedience is heightened to new levels. This brings greater knowledge of all that God is. As our knowledge increases, we find the trickle of water becoming a stream then becoming a river, then it overflows like a flood. We need to be connected to the church in a way that we can learn through experience, teaching, asking questions, and hearing many voices as they share their experience with God.
Going to church without getting involved has value, but so much more when we are connected to a circle of friends in the church, living life together, learning from one another. If we want to experience God deeper, we need a church connection that allows us to learn the hidden mysteries of God.
Prayer: Lord, help me to discipline myself to connect to a community of believers so that I might be ever increasing in grace and peace.
