SWORD OF THE SPIRIT                                                                                               1155

“Calling and Election Sure”

…make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ…Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. – 2 Peter 1:3-10

I try to live a healthy lifestyle, eat right (most of the time) and get regular exercise, plenty of rest etc. But even with all that I choose to supplement my diet with a variety of vitamins and medicinal herbs. This helps to assure me that my body is not lacking in what it needs to maintain health.

What about our spiritual health? By faith we have accepted Jesus Christ as our savior and we have God’s guarantee of eternal life.

…Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also…If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life. –  John 2:23-25

For many of us who are saved, however, the pressures of life and the matters of this world consume us and we fail to grow spiritually, placing our relationship with Father God on the ‘back burner’ so to speak. Our relationship with Jesus becomes ritualistic worship and our spiritual health suffers. Over time we become spiritually weak and susceptible to the enemy and we wonder if we are really saved. Our faith supplements are:

VIRTUE – Moral Goodness. Morality has to do with the right and wrongness of human actions as to how they affect the individual, others, and society as a whole. Do you act as Jesus would act?

KNOWLEDGE – Knowing God. Study the Word. Read it, meditate upon it. Pray the Word. Not occasionally but continually and you will grow in knowledge of God and His Son, Jesus.

SELF-CONTROL – A healthy spirit, abiding with Christ will overcome the sinful desires and cravings of the flesh.

STEADFASTNESS – A patient enduring. Waiting upon the Lord means to hope, anticipate, and to trust in Him. This comes from a foundation of personal, intimate knowledge of the Lord.

GODLINESS – Reverence for God in all circumstances. It is a true, reverential heart response to God no matter what happens. Contrast the response of those who curse God with Job’s response to worship Him.

BROTHERLY AFFECTION – Being a loving friend to fellow believers. Being Christ to the brethren in their time of need.

LOVE – Agape—Godly love. Being spiritually healthy brings the ability for God’s love and blessing to pour through us to others.

God is sure of our calling and election and if we supplement our faith as directed in our reference Scripture we can be sure also. These faith supplement virtues are evidence to the world of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. – Romans 8:29-30

To have that blessed assurance of our salvation means to live our Christian life in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as we seek the presence of Christ continually.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. – 1 John 5:13