Make every effort to add to your faith goodness. 2 Peter 1:5

Family gathered around the bed of Dominique Bouhours, a seventeenth-century grammarian who was dying. As he took his final breaths, he reportedly said, “I am about to—or I am going to—die; either expression is correct.” Who would care about grammar on their deathbed? Only someone who cared about grammar his entire life.

By the time we reach old age, we’re largely set in our ways. We’ve had a lifetime for our choices to harden into habits that calcify into character—good or bad. We are who we’ve chosen to become.

It’s easier to develop godly habits while our character is young and flexible. Peter urges, “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). Practice these virtues, and “you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (v. 11).

Which traits in Peter’s list are most alive in you? Which qualities still need work? We can’t truly change who we’ve become, but Jesus can. Ask Him to transform and empower you. It may be a slow, arduous journey, but Jesus specializes in providing exactly what we need. Ask Him to transform your character so you become more and more like Him.

Which trait would you most like to change? How can you seek God’s power and provision and begin to change?

Dear Jesus, please make me more like You, so others will see You clearly.

Ezekiel 22-23; 1 Peter 1

Believers in Jesus in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) were suffering because of persecution. In Peter’s first letter, he encouraged them to remain faithful by following the example of Christ, who also suffered unjustly, and to live God-honoring lives in a hostile world. In his second letter, the apostle reminded his readers that it’s possible to live a life that honors God because He “has given us everything we need . . . through our knowledge of him” (v. 3). He’s given us “very great and precious promises” (v. 4) that enable all who know Him through Jesus to partake of His divine nature and overcome sinful desires. Verses 5-11 describes what that looks like as we pursue the virtues that will make us become more like Jesus. If we’re to live faithful and Christ-honoring lives, we must “make every effort” to pursue and draw on the provisions and power of God (vv. 5, 10).

K. T. Sim