Valuable

"Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ..." 

(2 Peter 1:1)

What's the most valuable thing you have?  Your car?  Antique jewelry?  Property?  Your house?  Stock?

What if the questions was phrased this way: What's of most value to you? 

Maybe then the answer would be something along the line of relationships: spouse, parents, children, friendships?  Possibly health?  Or one's career?  Or faith?

That last item is what the author of 2 Peter would say.  "To those who have received a faith as precious as ours..."  What an understatement!  For so many of us, faith is one of the most precious things we have in life - yet we don't always treat it that way, do we?  If something is truly precious to us, we go out of our way to care for it, protect it, nurture it.  We spend time with it.  It becomes forefront in our hearts & minds.  Unfortunately, that's not always the case with our faith, is it (not even for us pastors!)?  We get around to it when we have the time... or when we remember.  We go to church (most Sundays), but too often that's all.

I was speaking to someone this week who regrets not working harder to give his (now grown-up) children a consistent experience with God and a faith to build their lives on.  "They're good, moral people... they just don't have a spiritual foundation."  When I've met people living in extreme poverty, they recognize their greatest resource is their faith - and their faith blows me away!  That's valuable!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, you are all I need.  You are my strength.  Help me to cherish this precious, precious faith & not take it for granted... or neglect it.