⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. ⁸ 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. ⁹ But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
 ¹⁰ Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, ¹¹ and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-11, New International Version

For the sake of those who may not know how the Bible works, sometimes the name of the author of a particular book is also the name of the book, as is the case with 1 and 2 Peter.  Peter, one of the twelve disciples, is the author of those two books.  Now with Paul, that's not the case, otherwise we'd have  1-15 Paul ... or something like that.  Back to Peter ...

He's the disciple who tried to walk on water.  He had a few successful steps, then began to doubt, and subsequently started sinking.  Peter was the hothead of the group, frequently putting his foot in his mouth, or his sword across the ear of a Roman soldier.  He liked to boss Jesus around by telling him what he should or shouldn't do, which at one point led Jesus to compare Peter to satan.  Finally, when Jesus was being sent to the cross, Peter denied even knowing him ... not once or twice, but three times.  I guess you could say that Peter had some character flaws, and that on occasion, despite walking side by side with Jesus for three years, he even stumbled a few times.

Now this is the same Peter exhorting us to live godly, self-controlled, good and loving lives ... which leads me to my question: is it okay for us to talk the talk even if we're not quite walking the walk?  There have been times in church where I've been singing along with the worship leader and have had to stop because I didn't feel like I was living out the lyrics of the song.  There have been times I've been reading my Bible and had to close it because I didn't feel worthy to read about such a holy God.  There have been times I've been talking to someone about God, and what he's done in my life, only to walk away and feel unworthy of all He's done.

Paul goes on to tell us to "make every effort" to do these things.  Making every effort doesn't sound very absolute.  To me that sounds like a "do your best", or a "give it all you've got."  Okay, I can buy that because I know God isn't looking for me to be perfect.  But the he goes on to say that if we do those things we'll never stumble.  Never?  Now he's talking in absolutes.  How can doing my best, which is a far cry from being perfect, lead to never stumbling ... or never making a mistake?  I know I'm going to stumble again.  How do I know this?  Because I stumbled today.  I stumbled yesterday.  And the day before yesterday.  And last week.  And last month.  We're human ... stumbling is what we do best.

I'm not sure what Peter really means here God.  I hope to figure this out some day, along with a bunch of other scriptures.   In the meantime help me to be more self-controlled, and loving, and perseverant, and good, and godly, and loving.  And thank you for this day ... it was a pretty good one.  I love you Jesus.  Amen.