Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today we’ll seek to build on our growth obsession with faith’s upward progression.

Today’s scripture, 2 Peter 1:5‭-‬8 (NLT) encourages…
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, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Consider…
Yesterday we went through a continual growth process, that we called continuous transformation. We learned that becoming more like Christ requires

• Experiencing Him
• Study His word to learn about Him
• And letting the Holy Spirit teach us about Him

Today, we will add a supplemental process to our continual growth. Let’s call this process, Faith Supplements.

According to Oxford Languages, a Supplement is something that completes or enhances something else when added to it.

The two most common supplements that I am familiar with is:

• Vitamin Supplements. The purpose of a vitamin supplement is to correct vitamin or mineral deficiencies.
• Income Supplements. This is extra money or gifts employees earn on top of their regular wages.

In both cases a supplement is an ‘add to’ verses ‘replacement of’ the main thing. That’s exactly what today’s scripture is telling us to do, ‘add to’ the main thing required to please God, which is faith (Hebrews 11:6).

Here’s the list of supplements prescribed by the Apostle Peter in today’s scripture:

• Moral excellence
• Knowledge
• Self-control
• Patient endurance
• Godliness
• Brotherly affection
• Love

Notice Peter does a supplement build by using the preposition ‘with’. As we know, prepositions relate words to one another. That means the attributes listed by Peter are all related to each other and faith, which we know is the prerequisite for pleasing God. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the listed attributes add to us pleasing God.

I must admit, something captures my attention about the sequence of Peter’s supplements. As I pondered what intrigues me, the Holy Spirit showed me another list of transformation attributes, found in Galatians 5:22-23. The verses say the Holy Spirit produces:

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Patience
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-control

Eureka! That’s it! Peter’s list describes our spiritual transformation as growing from our faith up, whereas Paul explains the traits needed for transformation are passed down from the Holy Spirit. They both go hand in hand, which is why Peter tells us to add each attribute provided by the Holy Spirit to another in order to be more productive and useful in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I get it now…

• Faith should make me want to do right in God’s eyes.
• But wanting to isn’t enough to completely please God, it needs to be supplemented with seeking to know what’s right in God’s eyes.
• Yet knowing isn’t enough to completely please God, it needs to be supplemented with being disciplined to do what I know is right in God’s eyes.
• Still being disciplined isn’t enough to completely please God, it needs to be supplemented with remaining faithful to Him while accepting what He allows.
• Unfortunately our wishy-washy sin nature makes us miss the mark of God-like faithfulness and steadfastness, thus we must supplement it with a total commitment to live pure and holy lives like God.
• Living pure and holy lives look like Jesus, who loved us, His adopted brothers and sisters, and preferred our salvation above His Sovereignty. That means we too must love others more than ourselves. (1 John 3:16-19)
• All of this is the full essence of Agape love, which according to Jesus displays our complete transformation. (John 13:35)

That felt like alot, but it’s really only saying…

• Believe God
• Act like you believe God
• Seek like you believe God
• Evolve like you believe God

The Holy Spirit emphasized, Faith is the BASE to our continuous transformation of being Christ-like. But it requires supplements, intentionally enacted by us, to fully develop and display Christ’s new nature in us. (Ephesians 4:21-24)

Speaking of Christ’s new nature in us, the Holy Spirit also flashed the fact that we’re really being transformed into God’s children who will be just like His only begotten Son. He showed that to me in 1 John 3:2‭-‬3 (NLT), which says…
Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.

Today build on your BASE faith and grow more like Christ physically by adding the spiritual supplements prescribed by Peter.

Today’s song is…
Faith

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)