Everything We Need

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” (2 Pet 1:3)

Sometimes we do not believe we have “everything” that we need.  Though we have found Jesus, and received salvation and the fullness of Life in Christ, we look at our lives as if they are full of lack.  But it is our knowledge of Him that fills our lives up.

Our knowledge of Christ is meant to show us the Father (Jn 16:25).  If we hear His words, we learn about God’s ways and His lessons are in our lives.  When we see lack in our lives, perhaps we are looking at the wrong things.

Our lives are lived out on this earth for more purposes than we often realize.  We may become disappointed that God does not lead us to minister to others in a significant way.  Perhaps we believe that only miracles are evidence of the Kingdom of God.  Though it seems reasonable to believe God’s works of power manifest His Kingdom, it is not reasonable to think that God has called us to live a life where only miracles take place.

Let us look at two of Jesus’ parables, both about the Kingdom of God.  The first is The Parable about the Sower.  Jesus explains to His disciples that His Word is the seed, and that “the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Mt 13:23). In this parable Jesus connects God’s words with our understanding.  The result is a good harvest.

The second parable is about a woman who mixes yeast into her flour “until it worked all through the dough.” (Mt 13:33) Jesus is talking about the Life that resides in God’s words, and their power to convert the heart of one who will receive it.  What is common to both these parables is that they connect God’s words to the working of God’s Kingdom in our lives. God’s words can do that because, like the seed and the yeast, they are living and active (Heb 4:12).

The parables show that the words are inserted into our hearts.  God’s words do not come all at once, and we do not bear only one harvest.  Our minds could not contain all the knowledge about God’s ways at one time, nor could we churn out a completed work of God in our lives in the following moments.  God’s words come as our lives happen.  He knows what we need, and if we listen and receive His words for the given circumstances, we have what we need for life, and godliness grows in us.

Jesus used examples of agents of change in His parables, such as a growing seed, and expanding bread dough.  These changes that take place in our lives fill them up with the Knowledge of God, because His Kingdom is growing inside of us.  If we listen and learn from our everyday lives, we are full of what God has provided for us and there is no lack.  It is a true saying then, that God has given us everything we need. Amen.