Add and Add

Thursday 25 February
READ: II Pet. 1:1-9
MORE LESSON:Mk. 9:23-24

It is challenging to hear the Apostle Peter urge fellow believers (pastors and congregation) to live a dynamic and ever growing Christian life. The apostle says that although as believers the knowledge of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ has already been given to us, …all things that pertain unto life and godliness….: II Pet. 1:3 plus …exceeding great and precious promises….: II Pet. 1:4, we still need some other things to add to be able to stand solid enough so that we cannot fail or fall. He outlined such things, …add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity: II Pet. 1:5-7. Three things are the challenge in this scripture. First, I thought if we have already been obtained with the precious faith through Jesus Christ our Saviour, meaning we are already born again and on top of it we have been given, …all things that pertain unto life and godliness and have been … called...to glory and virtue: II Pet. 1:3, then we are complete. Therefore, there is nothing to add.
Second, the things the apostle asks us to add other things to are things that look sufficient in themselves alone: faith, virtue, temperance, patience, knowledge, godliness, kindness, charity. In any case, the apostle does not say we do not have some of these things already, but that we must add to them. Third, all this increase aside from having already …escaped the corruption that is in the world: II Pet. 1:4. So, what then is the lesson? That whatever be your height in the Christian faith, you cannot afford to stop adding. The secret of increase and growth is addition. No matter how small, just keep adding consistently and permanently. When you stop adding, you stop growing and start reducing. Even stagnancy is a reduction. May you increase more and more. This year you will not decrease, the Lord shall be your increase.

Prayer/Action
*Ask God to reveal your small areas to you and add to you.
*Pray never to stop increasing.
*Ask the Lord to increase every area of strength and deal with every deficiency in your life.
*Ask God to add every missing thing in your faith today.
Take a definite decision on what you can begin to do to increase your faith. For instance, how many books to read per week. How many hours of prayer you will add per week. How many souls you will harvest per day. How you will intercede for them each day.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
As I walk into this day, the Lord shall preserve my going out and my coming in; He shall defend me on every side, in the name of Jesus.