“seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” 2 Peter 1:3-4

My first Lifegroup leader in my church had us memorize verse 3 in this passage several years ago. I am so thankful that these words from the Lord are embedded into my mind, as He brings them to my memory often.

As a mom and wife in a world full of advice and opinions and books and blogs and podcasts and all the stuff that can fill the news feed in my head, it is so grounding to hear the Lord say “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” There is just so much packed into that sentence so I want to study and chew on each word. God has given us everything we need spiritually to live our life in a way that brings Him glory. He gives us that. He provides that. He enables us through the power of the Holy Spirit. He has called us into His family by HIS great works and virtue, not ours. Yet I can get caught up sometimes thinking I need to listen to all the things, and read all the things, and watch all the things to help me be a better mom /  wife / Christian / friend who does all the things. But in this verse my Savior Jesus shows, He has done it, and He has given me everything I need to live it and rest in it. I love what Matthew Henry says about this verse..

“The fountain of all spiritual blessing is the divine power of Jesus Christ. All things that have any relation to, and influence upon, the true spiritual life, the life and power of godliness, are from Jesus Christ; in him all fullness dwells, and it is from him that we receive, even all that is necessary for the preserving, improving, and perfecting of godliness and life.”

We receive from Jesus ALL that is necessary to sustain us, grow us, and sanctify us in our life to glorify Him and make Him known. We have received that through the “true knowledge of Him”. We received that at salvation. We have been introduced to the Savior of the world! We have been invited into the presence of God! Our eyes have been opened to the things that are no longer a mystery.  “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”  John 17:3. Because of this knowing, because He has made Himself known to us, we have everything we need. The knowing He gives us isn’t just a knowledge of facts and the timeline of His life and death on this Earth but we know Him through the experience of Him that He gives us in our transformed lives. We have experienced the knowing. We have the knowledge of His Word as we read it but we experience it because it is alive and active and teaches, corrects, convicts, and trains us in righteousness. Our faith in Jesus says, YES I believe you, YES I am grabbing hold and acknowledge you as Lord and Savior of my life. Our faith in Him brings the knowledge and the comfort that the world can never offer. That is why we can have JOY no matter what, because knowing and experiencing Jesus is all we need for life and godliness. He is everything. He is enough.

This season I am called to declutter. Not just my home, although that is happening as well. Our home was hit with a tornado in 2017 and we lived in a hotel and then an apartment with few belongings for three months. When we moved back into our house I was overwhelmed with the amount of stuff we had after living with a small percentage of what we owned. I have been slowly working on that decluttering. Now that some of the physical decluttering is underway I am seeing the decluttering of my mind that needs some attention. I don’t need to complicate things. God’s Word so simply speaks deep soul-altering truths better than any #hashtag or truth bomb or “mic drop” moment another human may say. We can be encouraged by others for sure, we can be spurred on by insights of others as I often am, but when my mind gets cluttered and I’m not sure what parenting advice to heed, and I question if this sacrifice is too great, or I have a decision to make, God’s Word, Jesus Christ in me, will always point the way clearly and simply when I get still and pray.  As I grow in my knowledge of Him and His love for me, and my love and affection for Him grows out of that, my life will reflect that in my decisions, priorities, prayers and obedience. My brain needs some decluttering to make room for THE true knowledge of Him who called me by His own glory and excellence so I can live out the calling He has given me through the gifts He has provided.

I’m so thankful for the confident hope that produces. I’m so thankful that He says He will continue to perfect and complete the work He began in me. I’m so thankful He has introduced Himself to me. Y’all. We don’t need anything else. Marie Kondo is telling us to declutter our closets, and to only hang on to those things in our home that “spark joy”.  I am preaching to myself and asking you to hang on to the only One who brings true joy. Hold on to Him. Draw near to Him daily.  Gaze upon Him hourly. Give Him your first consistently. Remember the gospel with every breath. Look at what you have. No matter what your circumstances are, if you are in Christ, if you have been raised to new life through the blood of Jesus, You. Have. EVERYTHING. I looked it up, everything means…everything. All things. Each thing. Every thing. The whole thing. That’s what you have. Everything you need. Oh friends, may that spark some joy and fill us with hope in our day to day calling. May we feast on God’s Word first before we fill our minds with anything else. May we humbly submit to Him in prayer before we seek advice. (A wise friend reminded me of that last week). May we truly see ALL that we possess that enables us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling He has placed on our lives and BELIEVE He provides and sustains us until He has accomplished it. May we thank Him daily that we KNOW Him, could there be anything greater than that?!

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…” Philippians 3:8a