As Peter has listed the ways
we are to grow in our relationship with God the Father and our Lord
Jesus Christ, he has encouraged us to “make our calling and
election sure”. He desired that we would never fall in our
fellowship with God and in chapter one and verse eleven Peter tells
the benefit of keeping ourselves strong in the faith. We read:
For so an entrance
shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The verse begins, “For
so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly...” Peter
said the benefit to keeping the characteristics he listed in verses
five through seven of this chapter and making our calling and
election sure was that we will be “ministered”
or supplied and furnished, “an entrance”
which means “the place or way leading into a place (as a
gate) or the act of entering” in large capacity, richly and
abundantly what he is about to write. With baited breath we look to
the rest of this verse to know what we will be abundantly blessed to
receive.
The
verse continues, “into the everlasting kingdom of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Peter
tells us that we will gain an abundant entrance into the
“everlasting”
which means “without beginning and end, that which always
has been and always will be, and will never cease” kingdom of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This “kingdom” which carries the
idea of “royal power, kingship, dominion, and rule” belongs to
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and His promise is that we are
going to be participants within it. This is wonderful motivation to
observe Peter's eight characteristics and making our calling and
election sure.
Have we taken the time to
think about the benefits to keeping the principles of growth in our
relationship with God that Peter has offered? How long has it been
since we have thought about the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ? Perhaps as we joyously consider this verse we will find all
the encouragement we need to keep the precepts Peter has given us
thus far in this Second letter to the church.
Next
time Peter will tell us why he will remind us of these things, so
read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation” and the new marriage book “So, You Want
to Be Married” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ;
www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at
www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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