WWJD?

“…His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness…” 2 Peter 1:3

This is a very far reaching statement that I think would take a life time to truly understand, but I would like to explore at least a few of the implications of this verse.  First I would like to look at the type of power we now have for life and godliness.  In our previous life, we relied on our own power to live.  Most of us did not make any great effort to be godly before our salvation excepting the occasional visit to church.  But now, as “those who have obtained a faith of equal privilege with ours,” we are given the very power of God to live our lives and to live them in a godly fashion.  This means that if we can surrender our lives to God, we will no longer rely on our strength to get us from day to day, but rather we will be empowered by the Almighty to do the things of the Almighty.  Sadly many Christians, myself included, continue to live as if there has been no power given.  We are saved and now instead of just living, we want to live eternally and godly all under our own power; the very same power that was so insufficient that our Savior Jesus Christ had to leave heaven and die on a cross to save us from the weaknesses of our power.  If we truly have God’s power in us we certainly ought to use it.  Next I would like to think about the two areas that Peter says this power applies.  First he says life.  Now to understand the life that God expects us to live, knowing that godliness is another topic, we must realize that he is talking about eternal life.  The true blessing in this is that without God’s power we are not even capable of controlling our own death, much less living without death forever.  At some point in our lives, we must submit to the greater power of God in our lives knowing that He will carry us in His love for all eternity.  Now for what I understand to be life on this earth, Peter says that we are enabled by God to be godly, or like God.  Again we who continue to depend on our own power will not find this a difficult task, but an impossible one.  The normal lost person will live for the most part by obeying the laws of society thus staying out of immediate trouble.  Christians have a much higher calling; we are to live as God would live on this earth.  To say everything that means for me would take a life time, and to say it for anyone else would be impossible. 

We are to see each situation through the question, “What would Jesus do?”  That may be an overly popular phase, but at least in my life, it is a grossly under-USED phrase.  We should always see God’s way.  After we have found it, then we can see His power to accomplish it.  God wants us to live like Him, listen to the words of Peter in closing: “He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature.”