The Lord is grateful to have His believers turn to Him, after realizing they need to repent to live a life of unsurpassed joy. For this very reason, Scriptures state:
"Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love." (1 Peter 1:5-7, NKJV)
Virtue reminds me of our repentance and being humbled, as man was born into sin. Romans 3:23 states that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The goodness of God leads to repentance (Romans 2:4). Knowledge is about partaking in God's ministry- it's not about puffing ourselves with knowledge and keeping it to our own benefit; I've seen a brother in Christ do this and he was really getting convicted by the Holy Spirit of doing wrong. Self-control is about flushing our sins and cleaning out the system. I've heard of a useful technique where you inhale in God's love and faith of Christ's resurrection and then exhale a true confession of your sin. Perseverance reminds me of spiritual endurance, where dependence should be on God. I do not believe a person can eventually rely on his own strength to stop sinning! We have the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to help us. We were all born in sin and will fall short. We need to humble ourselves daily.
Briefly, God's love is a reflection of our lives; how the Holy Spirit has transformed the lives of others who had no where to go. God's love upon us is our testimony to unbelievers! To brotherly kindness, we have a glorious privilege and that's prayer. Renowned, Senior Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa recently came out with the book, "Prayer, Our Glorious Privilege"! This verse is saying to me to keep on prayer for your friends, family, country, and good people:
"Look after each other so that none of you will miss out on the special favor of God." (Hebrews 12:15, NLT)
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