Showing Our Character

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- 2 Peter 1:5-8 -

We continue to celebrate God this week, the way that God shows us the characteristics we've been hoping to mature in this season. So far we've seen God being good to us despite difficulty, giving us opportunities to grow in knowledge, being patient as we continue to ignore God's call, staying with us and helping us pull through difficult conditions.

So we are moving through the 2 Peter verses again, and we find ourselves at godliness. During team camp, our devotional about godliness showed that this really has to do with priorities. What are our priorities?

I was struck with this question this morning as I participating in a "Devotional Day" with my 8th grade class. We were going through a prayer from Sacred Space, when this thought came up in the prayer:

"Knowing that God loves me unconditionally, I can afford to be honest about how I am. How has the last day been, and how do I feel now? I share my feelings openly with the Lord."

And so I began to share my feelings with God. I'm excited that we won and played well last night, had a good time at the bonfire. I'm excited for tomorrow, hopefully confident that we'll play well against Fairfield. I was honest in the fact that sometimes I doubt God, whether God is really helping us in our season or not. But I was giving him credit, as much as I could, for helping us win. All of my thoughts centered around tennis, all of my requests were for tennis, and most of my thoughts and prayers were demanding - what I thought God should do.

The next part of the prayer, after sharing feelings, was called "Word of God." This was the Scripture that came up:

Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: 'Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay under the seal, and it is dyed like a garment. Light is withheld from the wicked, and their uplifted arm is broken. 'Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this. 'Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness, that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great! Then Job answered the Lord: 'See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but will proceed no further.'

Help me, Lord, to notice how you are speaking to me.

Boom. It hit me. Here I am, trying to celebrate what God is doing one moment and then the next moment telling God how He should act.

And why am I telling God how God should act?

Because tennis is more important to me than God is right now.

Somehow, I've not kept priorities in the right order throughout the season. And so I find that I need that readjusted. I have to come to God and ask forgiveness, but also ask that God help me change my priorities. I pray that I can accept the good from God just as God gives it to me, without any orders or demands on my part.

The prayer from Sacred Space ended with this:

Jesus, you always welcomed little children when you walked on this earth. Teach me to have a childlike trust in you. To live in the knowledge that you will never abandon me.

I was hit hard again. Another reason I make demands of God? I don't truly trust God to be good to me, to us. And then the final stroke of realization. In the very first part of the prayer, I was reminded that God loves me unconditionally. God loves me all the time. God is with me all the time, even when I disappoint him. Another way of saying this...

I am God's priority.

We are God's priority.

God is with us. God is working for our good. God is giving us opportunities to grow. God is patient with us. God perseveres through whatever we put God through. God is with us.

The first step to putting God back in his rightful place in our "priority ladder:" Recognizing these wonderful things about God, how worthy God is, how caring, and how close God is to us.

We will be a team who recognizes this. Through good and bad, rely on the Lord. God is always there for us, always working, always focusing on what we need, always battling.