Everything

It's one of my favorite passages:

2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

I have everything I need for life and godliness. I have everything I need to participate in Jesus' divine nature and escape the corruption caused by my evil desires. Everything.

Everything comes from one source: knowledge. You expected me to say faith or hope or trust, didn't you? Or maybe to say God. But Peter says God gives me what I need through my knowledge of Him.

Why? Because God in his glory and goodness gave us, through the scriptures and through our pastors and parents and all those Sunday School teachers we didn't pay enough attention to, a lot of promises. If we know those promises, we have everything we need.

That's true because of who made those promises: The God who made the world, the one who made me. The God who not only is all-powerful and can do anything, but the God who loves me and wants to do what is good for me. He promised, and He can. Nothing will stop Him.

Those promises have the world's only completely iron-clad guarantee. Your insurance policy promises to cover you except for acts of God. God's promises are acts of God, and I'll bet He covers acts of insurance, or lack thereof.

Of course, sometimes I forget the promises, or I don't know the right one for the circumstances. That's why Peter zeroes in on knowledge. To trust God you have to know Him, and to know Him you have to know your Bible.

The Cliff Notes version: Read your Bible, and you'll grow holier. Not rocket science, but, considering most of us spend less than five minutes a day doing it, worth the reminder.