A Recipe for FAITH

"For this very reason you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

(2 Peter 1:5-8)

I enjoy cooking. But I'm not very big on recipes. Oh, I know many people who love using them. They find an exceptional recipe and meticulously follow it - thereby reproducing the delicious dish in the comforts of their own home. To be honest, I guess I'm just lazy. There are always ingredients that I don't have, so I have to make an extra trip to the grocery store and spend a lot of money to replicate the aforementioned dish. It's just too much work.

I'm the kind of cook who keeps certain staples stocked, then looks around to see what I can make with what I already have. It's enough for me. Call it conservation of energy (and resources!).

But when I read 2 Peter 1 today, I was reminded that recipes can also be exceedingly helpful - especially when it comes to our FAITH. The writer comments that our faith is supported when we practice these traits: goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. They are successive, meaning was we fulfill one, it leads to the next And in the end, we are told, this keeps us "from being ineffective and unfruitful." Wow!

I can't think of much I'd rather not be than "unfruitful and ineffective," especially as a pastor! So I must begin seeking goodness... which will make me aware of the need for knowledge (and truth!)... which will allow me to exercise more self-control (in what I say, do, think, etc.)... which will help me endure the challenges of life (we all have them)... which leads to a more godly way of existing... which opens my heart to treating others with kindness and grace (aka mutual affection)... which, in turn, allow me to actually (and honestly) LOVE others.

Wow. Now THAT'S a recipe to follow!