Add to Your Faith
“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”
According to 2 Peter 1:5-7, I need to give all diligence to add to my faith. The end result of all my “adding” will be love. Which characteristic in the verse do you need to add and why?
Andres T. – This week, we understood what adding to our faith encompasses. As the Word tells us, our ultimate goal from adding to our faith is love. A love that reciprocates the love Jesus showed us through His sacrifice. The Lord this week personally showed me that I need to add perseverance to my faith. He has taught me that I need to press on towards the goal of showing love to the world, but I need perseverance that is found through Him to continue walking by faith.
Charlene D. – If the end goal of my faith is love, then I need to add self control to get me there. I need faith that God would give me victory and control over my flesh and worldly desires. If I’m esteeming something else above God, and looking to things other than Him, how am I supposed to have the right view on how to love others, when God is love?
Jared R. – This week has been challenging to say the least. We got to take a look into what areas of our faith and heart we need to add certain godly characteristics to, coming from 2 Peter 1:5-7. The Lord has been leading me in adding many attributes that reflect Him, but the main one that has stuck out to me this week has been patience. I’m what you may call a “go-getter.” I always am going 100 miles per hour in everything I do. But sometimes the Lord wants me to slow down, and soak in everything I’m learning here at Patmos. He doesn’t want me to miss out on the lessons He’s teaching me. Especially while, in all honesty, I’ve struggled with missing home. But He’s been faithful to let me know that He’s with me through all the trials I am currently facing in the furnace of change. Patience is so sweet, and it is very rewarding. As I continue to press on forward, I am expectant to see what He teaches me by continuing to be patient with Him.
Leigh Anne Z. – Although each of the characteristics in 2 Peter 1:5-7 needs to increase in my life, the one that needs to increase the most is brotherly kindness. This week, I have realized that although my actions appear loving, a lot of times I am doing it out of wanting to gain acceptance and the love of the other person. I want to learn how to love others out of pure love and gratitude for the sacrificial love that God showed me when He had His own Son die for me. God has convicted me to increase in brotherly kindness / love but WITHOUT the selfish ambitions. I am convicted to love others deeper because He first loved me.
Marissa H. – Learning this verse at first it was just a bunch of random characteristics but now, after a while walking through it, I’ve grasped a little bit on how to practice giving all diligence and to persevere with my team and learning that the end result is just to love your neighbor not only as you love yourself, but also learning how to love your neighbor as God has loved you. I need to learn how to add brotherly kindness because I have a hard time giving back to my team and loving them.
Neil C. – This week has been reflective of my life and how I love people. Recently I have learned that my character is not always loving nor is it always sincere when I perform deeds for others. I was reminded this week of the love of the Father and how it is the most genuine and complete love that can ever be found. As a child of God, I am called to a higher degree of love, one that is exemplified by the greatest example of love manifested into a man, Jesus Christ. His love was complete in all ways and His grace is unending. As I walk closer with Him I hope to learn how to show a love like He did.
Sophia P. – Something I need to add to my faith is brotherly kindness. Brotherly kindness is so important, especially now that I have a team that needs to be able to depend on me. Brotherly kindness looks like abiding in God. 1 John 1:9-10, “He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” To love God practically looks like loving others. I love my team but I know that I can love them better.
Zachary G. – As we have studied 2 Peter 1:5-7, I have found it important to understand the necessity of faith as the basis because you can’t add to faith without faith being there to begin with. Grasped how important it is to not allow the fear of man or legalism to interrupt the process has been important because those will halt all progress in adding to faith. I have realized my lack of brotherly love throughout this week, seeing my selfishness and recognizing that although I may love people outwardly, on the inside I don’t always have “phileo” love for them. There’s so much I’m learning and being convicted of but the biggest thing this week was understanding that my good works shouldn’t be an attempt to make God happy to earn His favor but instead it should be because of His immense free grace that this is the only response.