2 Peter 1:5-8 (NIV) 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, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, 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.

The passage of scripture above makes it very clear about how important it is to possess godly characteristics as they prevent ineffectiveness in our spiritual journey. Most of the characteristics mentioned are among the fruit of the Spirit, which anyone who has the Spirit living in them should have. So how do you “add” these to your faith? It begins by checking yourself.

Every day that you get up, the first thing you should do is check in with your Lord and Savior Jesus. Without a consistent and intimate relationship with Him, you will not add anything at all to your faith. The way that you add the godly traits above is by adding more of Jesus into your life. Then, after making sure that you are continually seeking Jesus and looking to get closer and closer to Him, you need to check yourself. Have you noticed that even when you are seeking the Lord with all your heart and even when you are diligently reading the scriptures, your flesh will still try to rear its ugly head? That’s why Jesus admonishes us to pick up our cross and deny ourselves daily. But even after doing those things, we still have to examine ourselves. Have you ever gotten up in the morning and immediately felt a lack of patience with everyone? That means that the fruit of patience is missing from your life on that day. So what do you do about it? A lot of believers don’t know that they do not have to go throughout the whole day feeling impatient or worse, acting on with that impatience with someone. That is totally unnecessary. What you need to do when you are short on patience or any other virtue is to go to Jesus, who is the one that the fruit of patience comes from. As you ask Him, you will find that He will supply what is missing in your life.

Don’t go around an entire day with missing fruit in your life. Find out what’s missing and take the issue to Jesus. Every time you notice a lack in any area, run to Him and ask Him for a supply of what is missing. He will supply what is missing. He does it by filling you with Himself, which will immediately take care of what you are missing. Jesus does not have the issues that we have and He never lacks for anything. Make sure that you are being effective and productive in your faith so that you will be a powerful witness of the goodness of God to everyone that you come in contact with.

Pastor Joey Vazquez