Good morning. With the beautiful weather we have been enjoying, highs in the 60s on the 9th of March, it is easy to let our hearts yearn for spring. For me, that means considering potential fishing trips. For Pam, that means seed catalogues and imagining gardens of flowers and vegetables. Spring, it is a time for new growth and expectations!
Peter ends his writings to us with these words found in 2 Peter 3:17-18. The context is that our enemy will try to confuse God’s people with false teaching and the ideas of people who are not of the Lord. Instead, we must take care to grow properly, and these are his closing words of encouragement: But you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Clearly, we are to be careful not to be fooled by falsehood but are to always hold fast to the truth in Christ Jesus. I appreciate the way this command is given: “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord”. Let’s consider for a moment how we can be sure to grow properly.
Romans 12:1-2 tell us that we are to take care that we are not shaped by the world’s mold, but instead are to be “transformed by the renewal of your mind.” The scripture reads: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
I would consider this command from Romans consistent with the first step of “growing” in the Lord as is commanded in 2 Peter 3:18. Transformative thinking requires that just as we are careful to break the mold of the world, we also make sure that we are properly planted. By this, I mean that we don’t let our spiritual roots sink too deeply into the soil of the world around us, but instead we are “changed” through our spiritual planting in the Lord’s own garden. I think that one way of looking at this is to agree that we aren’t going to “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord” properly if we allow ourselves to be planted with weeds.
Peter also writes in 1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— If our desire is to “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord” we must long for the right kind of nourishment. Plants need sunshine, but different plants need direct and full sunshine, while others need their sunshine well filtered. The right kind of this sunshine/nourishment feeds them while the wrong kind starves them or burns them alive. Plants need water. Pam gave me a gift a couple of years ago of a beautiful planter filled with succulents. These are dry ground type plants, and I killed them off by over-watering them. Other plants need water on a daily basis and when the weather gets warm they are either watered properly or they will wither and die from the lack of it. I have killed those kinds of plants by under-watering them. Also, plants tend to need the right kind of fertilizer to nourish them. Too much and you burn their roots, and too little and they will never grow to yield the fruit, vegetables, or flowers as they should. Plants need to be nourished, but in all the right ways. Growing properly as Christians means that we yearn for the proper “spiritual milk.” With it, we are nourished and flourish, but without it we fail.
Another clear path to growth in the Lord is found in prayer. There is no greater example of the importance of prayer than the Lord himself, as we read in Luke 5:15-16 “Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray.” No matter how busy His day had become, no matter how many demands were placed upon Him, Jesus took time to pray. This too is all about nourishment. Jesus knew that the more complicated and busy life became, the more critically important it was to be fully nourished and sustained by the Father through personal conversation in prayer to fully prepare Him for those tasks. Prayer nourishes us always, and prayer sustains us when tough times may come.
There is a long list of activities that provide nourishment for us that we may “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord”. That list includes Bible study, fellowship with other Christians, worship, service, quiet time and meditation, fasting, and the sharing of our faith. We touch on all of these activities from time to time. For today, let’s consider the importance of being properly planted, properly nourished, and properly sustained.
Spring is a time for new growth and expectations. It is a time to consider what it means, and what it takes, to grow, and as Christians that means that we “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord”.
God bless your growth today!
Vern