MAKE EVERY EFFORT

 

MAKE EVERY EFFORT

II Peter 3:14 And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to live a pure and blameless life. And be at peace with God.  NLT

       We live in a time of expectation.  We expect the Lord to come soon.  We expect Satan to be taken captive to harass us no more.  We expect there to be a time in which we can actually live the Word of God without failing.  We expect that all believers will soon be able to live humbly and honorably with each other in love and peace.  We know these things are going to happen and we wait in anticipation of it.  Until that day comes, we must do the best that we can.

       We must make every effort to live pure and blameless lives.  Every effort means every effort.  We must do our best to stay pure and blameless before God.  We know what we are to do; now it is up to us to do it.  We must put forth the effort to be pure and blameless.  We must do the things that will enable us to stay pure and not do the things that make us impure.  We must not neglect disciplining our souls so that when we are tempted we will have the desire to say no to it. 

       God will not keep us pure and blameless without our doing our part.  Godliness is not a given; we must purposely strive to obtain it.  We must take seriously our need to be saturated by God’s Word and to be in our prayer closets.  We must take seriously our need to desire to please God and not ourselves or others.  If you are not putting in the effort, you will never live a pure and blameless life before God.  We need to be as concerned about our souls as we are everything else that is a part of our living.

        The reward of our effort is peace with God.  Those who are pure in heart and blameless in living are not guilt-laden.  They do not have shame because they sin against God.  They are able to rest in the security of God’s love and grace.  They are indeed blest.