Become Active and Fruitful

2 Peter 1:3-8 (NIV)

3  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
4  Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5  For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;
6  and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;
7  and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
8  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How do we participate in the divine nature and become “active and fruitful?” according to Moffatt translation? He tells us there are 8 steps:

(1)Faith: belief, surrender, and obedience.

(2) Resolution – Resolution is second, after surrender. The Way is not primarily the whipping up of the will, but it’s surrender, and then resolution.

(3) Intelligence: What does not hold the mind will not hold the emotion and the will.

(4) Self-control: Now self-control, following self-surrender is God-control.

(5) Steadfastness: No tentative attitudes.

(6) Godliness: This is Godward – the God contact through prayer.

(7) Brotherliness: This is manward – the human contact through brotherly attitudes.

(8) Christian Love: This is the atmosphere and the attitude of the whole. For these qualities to exist and increase with you, they render you “active and fruitful.”
Here is a daily exercise:

Begin the day with God,
Kneel down to him in prayer;
Lift up thy heart to His abode
And seek his love to share.

Open the Book of God,
And read a portion there;
That it may hallow all thy thoughts
And sweeten all thy care.

Go through the day with Go,
Whate’er thy work may be;
Where’er thou art – at home, abroad,
He still is near to thee.

Converse in mind with God,
Thy spirit heavenward raise;
Acknowledge every good bestowed,
And offer grateful praise.

Lie down at night with God,
Who gives His servants sleep,
When thou tread’st the vale of death
He will thee guard and keep.”

“Lord, help us to draw on the power of habit to reinforce these resolves. Help us to Become natural in good, at home in the Kingdom. Amen.”