United Methodist Church of Hartford

“His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ.” 2Peter 1:3-8

Engaging the work of faith, to be authentic instruments of it, we must constantly be “effective” and “fruitful” in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter seems to hold no punches in his letter. “Everything needed for living a godly life has already been given us in Christ Jesus,” so we must be careful of having “unsteady souls,” because there are those who have “eyes full of adultery and hearts trained in greed,” and they are waiting “to entice us.” 1:14 What does this mean for us today?

Living a godly life requires us to have an intimate relationship with Jesus, and it’s a heart thing. The more we study His Word, to live His way, our hearts fill and overflow with the fruit of His Spirit. Gal 5:22 Like the Skin Horse says to the Velveteen Rabbit, “it’s something that doesn’t happen all at once. It takes a long time, doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.” As a matter of fact, by the time we are really on our way to knowing Jesus, we will have faced the difficult fact that we can’t get there under our own abilities. Let’s make the choice, every morning, to live godly and to know Jesus. We’ve got the power—in Him.

Sincerely, Pastor