2 Peter 1:4
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
What of Today’s Verse…
Through God’s excellence—internal and external—he has given us great promises. Their nature is suggested in the words that follow: participation in the divine nature and escape from worldly corruption. Participate in the divine nature. Does not indicate that Christians become divine in any sense, but only that we are indwelt by God through his Holy Spirit (see Jn 14:16-17). Our humanity and his deity, as well as the human personality and the divine, remain distinct and separate.
Let Us Pray:
Almighty God, my Everlasting Fortress, thank you for giving me your great promises. I long to know you more fully and be able to see your face today, just as I believe I will one day. Please protect me and my heart from corruption. In all love and appreciation I pray. Amen.
Words of Wisdom
The Spontaneity Of Love
Love is not premeditated, it is spontaneous, i.e., it bursts up in extraordinary ways. There is nothing of mathematical certainty in Paul’s category of love. We cannot say – “Now I am going to think no evil; I am going to believe all things.” The characteristic of love is spontaneity. We do not set the statements of Jesus in front of us as a standard; but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we live according to His standard with out knowing it, and on looking back we are amazed at the disinterestedness of a particular emotion, which is the evidence that the spontaneity of real love was there. In everything to do with the life of God in us, its nature is only discerned when it is past.
The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally, it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign that we do not love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love, it comes naturally. In looking back we cannot tell why we did certain things, we did them according to the spontaneous nature of His love in us. The life of God manifests itself in this spontaneous way because the springs of love are in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 5:5.)
“Love suffereth long, and is kind . . .” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
