When your Faith is on E.
3 minute read
This post is for those days when your Faith is on E.
For anyone living that day in real time with me, here we go. For anyone that’s not, hold this one closely because that day will come. I say that not as a doomsdayer or a soothsayer, but as a Bible believer.
Boom.
I’ve been in 2 Peter for a while, and I kinda can’t get past verses 3 and 4 we touched on in last week’s post.
Today I started in verse 5 hoping to progress, but it starts with “In view of all this…”
Sooo I landed back in verse 4 to remind myself of what “all this” refers to…
(“What’s all this? What’s all this?”)
2 Peter 1:4 And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable us to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
My heart and eyes were drawn to the word precious. We call babies precious, we call jewels precious. Do we call promises precious? Typically no, but what a sweet way to view the promises of God.
And if He calls them precious, they’re worth repeating over and over, yes? This perspective led me to write them out to God and ask Him to reteach them to my heart and brain.
Your precious promises:
You are the Alpha & Omega, You are with me wherever I go, You work all things for my good and your glory, You will be with me to the end of the age, You will make known to me the path of my life, Your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope eternal, humbling and submitting to You makes the devil flee, You are coming back, You are coming soon, You love me so much you sent Jesus to save me so You could be with me forever, You are the lion and the lamb, Yours is the victory!
The other piece that jumped out was “escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”
Since they’re called the cause of worldly corruption here, I wanted to first list out the human desires I/you/we all have leading to said corruption.
Human desires:
Security, status, wealth, affirmation, to be wanted, acceptance, beauty, adoration, ease, perfection, comfort, no pain, friends, a happy family, merriment, success, health, invincibility, pleasure, lust, greed, revenge, justice, vindication, to be right, to be free from worry, guarantees, knowledge, wisdom, accolades, less responsibility, more responsibility, respect, attaboys, love, affection, control, trust, forgiveness, mercy, eternity… to be God
We want it all, don’t we? Some of these desires are not so good, yet even some of the good ones can even morph into bad ones if they become the only ones.
What worldly corruption do all of these human desires lead to?
Worldly corruption:
Wars, drugs, addiction, abuse, corrupt politics, mean girl groups, bullying, exclusivity, judgement, false gods, idols, false teachers, false doctrine, spirituality, new ageism, universalism, enlightenment, prosperity gospel, deception, power plays, illegal gambling, prostitution, pornography, sex trafficking, depression, anxiety, escapism, lying, cheating, adultery, affairs, broken marriages the list goes on…
We want to feel good, and we want to look good, whether that’s physically &/or as a result of awe from fellow man. This could even be done by being overly humble. Wow, look how selfless he/she is. We want to be adored, and we want to be in control.
We want to be God.
Think about it: My sin (human desire) can often blur the object of my affection from being my Heavenly Father, to then only wanting God’s blessings, to finally just leaving Him out all together so I can try my hand at being God.
In sum, our “object of human desire problem” leads to all worldly destruction.
The slope is oh-so-slippery, yet in His grace, He has given us a way out. By focusing on his precious promises we are equipped to escape these desires.
Sometimes this is easy to do, but sometimes it takes a whole lot of energy to shift focus toward these promises. #yafeelme
More often than not, when my faith is low, it’s typically because of my circumstances in this broken world. When this happens, I have no other choice but to ask the Holy Spirit to re-train my heart and brain to see my circumstances for what they are: They may be trying, but they are fleeting in the grand scheme of life. He is using them for His glory and my good, and they are most definitely not the end of the story.
Before the beginning of time, God knew this would be our never-ending struggle, so He gave us His Son.
In doing so, He becomes the rock securing us. He is the ultimate acceptor – He even calls us to Himself. He runs after us with goodness and mercy. Talk about being adored and wanted. I deserve only death, yet He sent Jesus, and now He calls me a saint! Jesus is the only one who can ever fully fulfill all my human desires because what He has done for me flips every.single.desire on its head in comparison to Him.
When Faith is on E, fight back against the dark. Fight back against your human desires by meditating on his precious promises. Even more, He knew we would need a Helper and an Advocate to do this for us, so He has gifted us the Holy Spirit to fight the battle on our behalf. He knew we would need armor and a weapon, so He gave us those too. When it doesn’t come easily to pick up your sword (God’s word), reteach yourself his promises (like we’re doing right now), and believe the Holy Spirit can and will renew your mind.
The devil’s playground is the shortcut we tend to take when we’re running on an empty faith tank. We see our human desires as the answers, and we kick and scream when we don’t get them. When (not if) this happens, we remember the wise words of James and COUNT IT ALL JOY. There’s no quicker way to be thrown out of the devil’s playground than by getting all joyful in your suffering!!!
Good. Do it. Laugh in the devil’s face, cry out to Jesus, call on your community to pray with and for you, and watch your faith tank refill as you trust GOD ALMIGHTY with the eternal value of His precious promises.
They are enough!
Father God, thank you for the gift of your precious promises as you teach them to us in your Word. Let us read it this week. Let us study it and thirst for it. On mornings when we want to skip it and jump into our phones or our day to day life, carve out the time in a way only you can. Let us yield first and foremost to your will and your goodness! Your path is not always easy, but it is ALWAYS better. In your Son’s precious and perfect name we pray, Amen.
Suggested scripture this week:
1 & 2 Peter
Romans 8
Ephesians 6
John 16
Romans 12