Route to Growth

2 Peter 1: 1-11

From today's bible reading, we see there's more to christianity than just faith. Faith is the first step: you get saved through faith in Jesus as your lord and saviour, but you don't stay there. After salvation, you make a conscious decision to live virtuous. It's a conscious decision to live for God, and you begin to grow. Then you add knowledge. You meditate on the Word daily and you learn more by studying. Then you add self-control. self-control can also be described as discipline. You set a routine to read your bible, to study your bible, to pray and sometimes to fast. You might have to sacrifice a hour of Madden 09, but that's one aspect of growth. After you set a schedule for yourself, you stick to it. It's called perseverence or consistency. Next, you step out and walk in brotherly kindness. You let people see Christ reflected in how you live your life. And becuase you now know so much about the Word, you know that the greatest reflection of Jesus is love. Now these steps are not necessarily one after the other but as you walk them out, you grow. You become more secure in your salvation, or as my bible puts it, "make you call and election sure." Are you 100% sure of your salvation? Can you face skeptics and still know for a fact that you will go to heaven? If not, you got a lot of growing to do