What did I forget?

2 Peter 1:3-8 (NLT)

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. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

The Power we know

When we stop and think for a minute or two about what has happened to us in our salvation, we remember that we have been united to Christ. Christ lives in us by the Holy Spirit. This mystical union is the only power that we have to fight off the corruption that quickly consumes us and everything around us.

We have great and precious promises, which enable us to escape from adding to the corruption of the world. Instead of allowing our desires to control us and bring untold destruction on ourselves and others, we can tap into the power that lives inside of us and live the promises that we have been given.

The Power we forgot

Foolish, simple creatures we are. We hold the key to the city in our pocket, but stand at the door and knock, waiting for someone to open it up. We have the faith and the promises! We have the key to open the door to untold power, power to do the following:

1. Exercise faith. Believe that what is true is real. Christ is united to us by the Holy Spirit. He really is in us!
2. Moral excellence. Actually do what God tells us to do in His word. This means an active striving to live an upright life. It means: always telling the truth, no matter the cost, giving to others who are in need, working our best at everything, etc.
3. Get knowledge. Don't be content with going surface deep in your relationship with God. Like young lovers who want to know everything about each other, keep going deeper unlearning about who God is, what he likes and dislikes, etc.
4. Use self-control. Say "no" to ourselves. We don't have to have everything, and do everything, and be everything. Instead, be who you are. Live life for God and not for self.
5. Patient endurance. Life is hard, and a prep ground for heaven. We are going to have to suffer, so we might as well do it without spending our whole lives complaining. Keep fighting through troubles, persecution, difficulty, etc. Keep going, even when you don't think you can...after all, you have divine power, union with Christ.
6. Godliness. This means living in such a way that people can see God in you, can see His work. It means keeping His commands from the heart for God's sake and not ours. It means demonstrating that power that is real and lives in us.
7. Brotherly affection. It means living in the community of faith in a giving way. Giving your time, resources and spiritual power to them and for them. It means being genuinely concerned for those who also are united to Christ.
8. Love. Read 1Corinthians 13. Love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, etc.

Remember

Living in any way other than this is forgetting what Christ has done. We have been crucified with Him in his death, our old man has been put to death. We have been made alive with Him in His resurrection, we now have a new man. Not to live like we have the new man, is to forget our salvation and our very essence. It truly is short-sighted and blind.

If only we would remember what has been done for us, and who lives in us. Then our lives would show who we are. Lord, help us to remember to be who we really are in Christ. Let our union with Christ resonate with us today.