Everything We Need

Copyright 2012:  singeronthesand

Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the

knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  His divine

power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

2 Peter 1:2-3 [NIV]

 

I don't know about you, but there are days when I wish that I had a magical supplement to take in the morning to insure good health for the day, or a tried and true formula that I simply needed to plug into life's calculator in order to make my day go smoothly.  The Fountain of Youth, the blarney stone, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or a win in the latest Powerball lottery - all of these fantasies have such a magnetic pull on us because we believe that any one of these things would solve all our problems and put us on Easy Street.  

Shifty Ms. Hannigan in the musical Annie, was always trying to reach Easy Street.  Her way of getting there?

You can't get there playing by the rulebook,

You stack the aces;  You load the dice.

For her, Easy Street was a place where there was plenty of money that you didn't have to work for,  plenty of booze to smooth your way, and a life that went exactly the way you wanted.  Annie is a work of fiction, and so is the idea of a life of ease unfettered by the problems, pressures and disappointments of this world. 

The Apostle Peter, on the other hand, makes the astounding statement that God has already given us everything we need for life and godly living.  He, however, was not talking about a life of ease and pleasure, but of praise to God and service to others.  God gives to us the ability to believe - a faith.  That faith is the core - the foundation of the Christian life - enabling us to trust God and believe that He will not relieve us of, but walk us through the sturm und drang of daily living.