Mining the Introduction

This morning I am reading from Peter's Second Letter:

2 Peter 1:1-3 NIV
[1] "Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: [2] Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. [3] His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."

So often I just skip past the introduction statement in the different letters in the Bible, thinking that they are just greetings and such. I want to get to the eat of the message. As I stopped myself from doing that this morning, I looked closer at the statement's Peter makes and was encouraged.

His first line - " To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours" has such an important point, namely that it is through the righteousness of God and Jesus that we even can have a faith, that we receive it (faith). It is a gift, made possible by God. Faith is not something we work up, but something we receive. If we don't have enough faith, we need to ask for more! I am reminded of the story in Mark 9:24 where the father of the boy who suffered seizures cried out, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Amen Lord, I need more faith.

His second line is equally loaded - "Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." I know many times I have asked for peace and prayed for grace. Peter is saying that these two things are accessible in abundance through our knowledge of God. The Greek word Peter uses is Epignosis, which means precise and correct knowledge. This type of knowledge, when speaking about another person, can only be acquired through intimacy and conversation. So the more we really know God, the more peace and grace we will experience, and this will come through times of intimacy and conversation - which I call prayer. We can't just yell serenity now, and expect it to happen! :-)

His third line starts with - "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life...". What an awesome reminder of God's all sufficient Love. He calls us to follow Him, but He also gives us everything we need to be able to follow Him. If following Him meant climbing a mountain, He would be providing us all the mountain climbing gear, clothing and knowledge we needed to follow Him. Again, He HAS provided this for us, so if we don't have anything, we just need to ask. I like to think that the store is open, and everything has already been paid for, all I need to do is ask for what I need.

What an awesome set of verses, packed full of good things and encouragement! I am glad I stopped to read His introduction statements.