You've Got the Power...Now Use It!

2 Peter 1:3-11
³ By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. ⁴ And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
⁵ In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
⁸ The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
¹⁰ So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. ¹¹ Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.




God has equipped us with everything we need to live a godly life. (Through the Holy Spirit) We received it when we were called to him & believed through his "marvelous glory and excellence."
That "glory and excellence" came with a promise of Christ's divine nature. (He lived as a man and was tempted in every way, but he overcame.) The promise given is that we can be overcomers too and will "escape the world's corruption."
Knowing that God has given this promise to overcome and has given us all we need to do that;we have to do our part and TRY!! "Make every effort to respond to God's promises" and he goes on to take us step by step through that process...the growth process-growing to be more Christ-like.
The more you grow, the more effective you'll be in the kingdom(that makes complete sense).
If you don't grow you'll die (spiritually)
"Work hard"...This growth & the process required takes time. It won't be easy. Temptations may get harder, but he won't put more on us than we can stand and he always offers an escape (1 Cor. 10:13). It's up to you to  use that escape. But if you're trying and working hard "you will never fall away". (BTW-trying isn't living however you want and going to church and asking forgiveness just to walk out and do it again)
Then the prize! HEAVEN!!!! AN ETERNITY WITH JESUS!!! It's gonna be worth every struggle and fight...every laugh or mocking remark from those around us. Heaven- JESUS is worth it!

Just like when you have a job and work hard all week to get that paycheck on Friday...Heaven is our paycheck, but on a much larger scale.
"Work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen."
It's not always easy but when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and received his Holy Spirit, you were equipped with the power to work hard and overcome the sin and corruptions of this world. You've got the power...you just gotta us it!!!