I’ve Got What I Need

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His

divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of

Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and

precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped

the corruption that is in the world through lust.

2 Peter 1:2-4

As I begin to write today’s devotional, off in another room and down the hall in our basement, I can hear

the sound of my fifteen-year-old son moving around. I am hopeful that he is getting his stuff for camp

together, because in a few days, he’s going to be going to be heading there for nearly two whole weeks. If

you have teens, had teens, or were a teen, you probably know that we are going to have to check and

double check his stuff to make sure he’s prepared. Inevitably, knowing his mom, she’s going to find things

he completely blanked on in putting his belongings together. We will make sure that he has what he

needs, though, and certainly don’t want to send him without having those necessities.

Have you ever felt like God is asking us to do things He hasn’t given us the resources for? I think so

many times that when I look at the bills coming, where the bank account’s at, what we need to plan or do

and how that seems impossible given the situation, it’s easy to feel like I do not have what I need. It’s

easy to look at health or your social network (the people you know, not Facebook) and to feel like you

lack what you need for doing what you need to do. It’s also not a stretch to say that we may look at our

lives and wonder how we could ever glorify God when there are times that seem so much against us. If

we draw those conclusions, though, we are going to be prone to dismiss the opportunities presented and

to justify poor responses that didn’t actually have to be that way.

Now, this passage is not really talking about the bank account or your health or friends, it speaks very

directly to this: for you to live a godly life, God has given you what you need. Stop and think about that:

what does it take to live a godly life? If you’re not careful, you’ll find as many of us do that we place a

whole lot of stipulations and amendments for what it takes to live a godly life. “Oh, Frank’s a godly guy, he

just needs to make sure he doesn’t get hangry. You know, he just needs his food.” “Susan is a real saint

so long as the kids don’t get noisy and they make sure to clean up after themselves.” Sounds silly, but be

honest, how many of us feel like if those things we rely upon for stability aren’t there, nobody’s getting a

godly person out of us? I’ll never forget a teacher at a counseling conference years ago saying, “You

could be dying of starvation right now halfway around the world and still be godly.” What they were saying

is quite the point: godliness doesn’t depend upon the climate of our circumstances but our decisions

within them.

Peter begins his second letter by stating his desire, and probably his prayer, that grace and peace be

multiplied to his recipients. We need God’s grace. Something I learned years ago that has proven true

many times over is that God’s grace is often not there until I need it. My wife and I could not imagine

losing a baby and how we could go through that until we did, and it’s there that we found amazing grace

and peace from God in ways we never expected. Sometimes, I freak out about something coming that I

need to do (maybe speak to a new group or something like that) and it’s so easy to think I can’t do it but I

say it again: God’s grace is often not there until I need it. Maybe you don’t have those words to say to

your friend about their relationship to God, their need of salvation and so forth, because you’re not in that

moment. Ponder that thought.

Keep in mind, though, in the context of these verses, God’s grace has provided all things that pertain to

life and godliness through that knowledge of Him as found in the Scriptures. When a person ignores the

Word, they are ignoring grace that has been provided already and that can also be a source of peace.

The Bible gives our minds and hearts stability. It’s also strong grounds for escaping the corruption in the

world, because while we may be saved, we are still here as forgiven sinners in a sin-cursed world filled

with false beliefs and self-seeking agendas and the Bible serves to help us realign our minds back to

what’s true. Having a new nature does not negate the daily battle with the old nature.

Remember this today: God has given us all things we need that pertain to life and godliness. He’s held

nothing back. You may feel like you need more to be living for Him today, but according to this passage,

you don’t. Hopefully that can help calm the nerves a bit, because when we believe that we need more or

that we can’t be godly because of our circumstances or whatever, we need that reminder from Scripture

that everything we need for the moment is supplied right there by the grace of God, one of those ways

being His word given to us.

We have the means to be brave, but do we have the wisdom to use those means? That’s probably the

question we each are answering every day. Be brave and be blessed as you read this and consider 2 Peter 1:2-4.

Sam Stringer

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by

permission. All rights reserved.