2 Peter 1:2 and 3...

This is a devotion I wrote for the worship team this week. For some reason, I think God wants me to put it here, as well.

2 Peter 1:2-3 (New Living Translation):

2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.

3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.


I have come to associate the term “growing in my faith” with “ challenge”. I used to think that I would grow in my faith when I really began studying the Bible. This was a great first step.. followed by a bunch more baby first steps.

I learned that in service I grew a great deal more.. and that actually applying God’s word encouraged real development of my heart. I learned to expect the feeling of being stretched and pulled as I learned about serving God instead of man, and learning that God calls us to joyful service, not “ Oh, Ok I guess I’ll do it”. God changed my attitude from one who looks for reasons or excuses not to serve, to one who said “ Whatever it takes, God.. whatever it takes.” For reasons unknown to myself, but known , I imagine, to my Father, I ended up being “in ministry”. My real growth had begun. And so had my challenges. Yay!

This brings me to why this verse is special to me. I learned recently that even" good southern women" who earnestly love Jesus and want to serve with all their hearts, can run out of manners. I am a person who is usually quick in the “giving grace” department. By nature. It is something I didn't have to try all that hard to do, mostly. This also means it was an area I tended to slack in when I prayed. Why bother asking God for one more thing when it was already sort of easy? ( Now, this makes me laugh at how obnoxious I really can be sometimes! Time to get really REAL here..)


Long story short, God will bring us to the end of ourselves just to teach us how much we need Him. He used some huge challenges, back to back, layered one on top of the other, with no break.. like waves- to bring me to a point where I was out of gas.. and out of grace. One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that while I have limits ( OH boy do I have limits) , God does not. When I feel all used up, He is just getting started!! The more I learn, the less I know.. and He likes it that way because it keeps me seeking Him. As I know Him more, however, I learn to ask for what I need. He promises us grace. He promises us everything we need to live a godly life. He promises MORE and MORE grace and peace, usually as we end up having NONE of that on our own power.

I am thankful tonight for a divine God who knows just what we need , how to give it to us, and how to teach us through challenges - how to call on Him. That is how much He loves us.