One Coin at a Time
II Peter 1:5-7 “Because you have these blessings, do your best to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness, add knowledge; and to your knowledge add self-control; and to your self-control, add patience; and to your patience, add service for God; and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness, add love.”
A number of years ago, my brother acquired a large clear glass jug at an estate sale. I couldn’t imagine just what he would do with it. But after getting it home, he began dropping his loose change into it each evening.
Today, that jug is filled to the brim with coins. Although it is too heavy to lift and the exact value is undetermined, a quick google-search estimates it to be upwards of $3000. Let me spell that out. THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS! That’s unbelievable considering pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters make up the contents. Each day’s coins, fairly insignificant alone, hold great value when added together.
If anyone inquires as to how he has done this, he will respond, “One coin at a time.”
Doesn’t this mimic the way our life in Christ is portrayed in the theme verses above? Similar to adding coins in a jug, Christ-followers must be diligent to add Christian virtues to our lives. By doing so, we will eventually find ourselves filled up with godly virtues, allowing us to share in God’s divine nature and becoming valuable in the work of sharing the gospel.
So just how do we fill ourselves up with virtues? When faith pricks our hearts, it calls us to become more like Christ, so we add His goodness into our lives. His goodness leaves us craving to intimately know God by spending time in His Word. The knowledge acquired from spending time with God brings an awareness of and desire for His divine character. So to be like Him, we add self-control and patience, enabling us to persevere through difficult circumstances. Self-control and patience are used when we reach out in kindness and service to others. So, these must be added in. Then, to finish filling up, we add the greatest virtue of all: love. When we fill ourselves with the love of God, we will find we have no room left for love of self. Like a jug filled with coins, when we are completely filled with godly virtues, we are valuable and ready to be used for many great things.
Godly virtues help us navigate the difficulties of life. When we are tempted to compare ourselves, our jobs, or our slightly less-than-perfect families to others’ seemingly-perfect Facebook posts, we must remember to add godliness into our lives and we will find freedom from human comparison. When the house looks like a tornado passed through merely moments after cleaning it, we must remember to add in the virtue of patience as we rally our forces together for another major clean-up. When we have heard the last excuse we ever care to hear from a co-worker or a child, we must add self-control coupled with godly knowledge before proceeding forward. Then we must trust God to direct our paths as we address these difficult situations through His love.
Yes, this list of virtues seems overwhelming: faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, patience, service for God, kindness, and love. But remember, just like the jug of coins, these can be added one at a time, building on each other, until we are filled to the brim and valuable for building up the Kingdom.
Father God, help me not be overwhelmed in becoming the woman you plan for me to be. May I remain diligent in filling myself with the virtues of your will.
Blessings,
Rita Cochrane |