Suppose you’ve been praying for steady work, and the call finally comes. You start Monday. For the first few weeks, you’re early every morning. Then one Thursday your supervisor points out a mistake in front of somebody else. You feel your face get hot. Before you’ve even looked at what went wrong, you’re thinking about handing over your keys and walking out.
You prayed for this job. You meant every word. So why is it suddenly so hard to stay?
Receiving something you’ve prayed for and learning how to care for it are two different experiences. A person can sincerely desire a new life and still have a great deal to learn about living it. At MRC House, that daily work of becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ is what we mean by formation.
Begin with what God has given
Before Peter asks believers to give their attention to growing, he reminds them what they have received. God has already acted on their behalf. His power supplies what they need to live a godly life, and He has given them promises they can trust. On that foundation, Peter calls them to give real effort to the development of their character. Read 2 Peter 1:3–9 (KJV).
That order matters to someone who has spent years trying to become good enough to come to God. You can come to Jesus today. You can repent, be baptized in His name, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then, with His Spirit at work in you, you can begin learning how to live the life He has given you. Even that uncomfortable Thursday at work can become part of your discipleship.
What growth looks like on a Thursday
Peter begins with faith. You trust Jesus enough to follow Him into a decision whose outcome you can’t control. To faith Peter says to add virtue, the goodness that moves you to do what’s right. Standing there with the keys in your hand, the honest thing might be to take another look at the work. Maybe you did make a mistake. You can own your part even if you wish your supervisor had spoken to you privately.
Then comes knowledge. As you grow familiar with the teaching and example of Jesus, you have something to draw on when your first impulse is to strike back. And that’s where temperance, or self-control, becomes very practical. You take a breath. You let the other person finish. You ask, “Can you show me what I missed?”
Patience carries that decision past the first few minutes. You finish the repair. You come back on Friday even though you still feel embarrassed. Over time, those choices give expression to godliness, a life lived with a steady regard for God. What you prayed about on Sunday begins to shape how you work when the only person looking over your shoulder is somebody you’d rather avoid.
These qualities grow together. In one difficult conversation you may need every one of them. And sometimes you’ll realize what you ought to have said halfway home. There’s still a faithful step available to you. You can go back and say it.
There’s somebody beside you
Peter goes on to name brotherly kindness and charity, or love. It’s worth asking who else might benefit from the freedom God is growing in you.
Months from now, a new employee might make the same mistake you made. You’ll know what it feels like to have everybody watching. You can wait until the two of you have a quiet minute, pull up a chair, and show them the part that gave you trouble. Something you once found hard to receive has become something you know how to give with kindness.
That’s one reason the local church matters so much to us at MRC House. At Church of the Apostles in New Orleans, we have people to pray with, people who can tell us the truth, and people whose burdens we can help carry. In those relationships, somebody may notice growth you’ve scarcely seen in yourself. They remember when a hard word could cost you a whole week. This time you stayed. You listened. And when someone else needed help, you stayed for them, too.
As you read Peter’s words, think about one situation you know you’ll face this week. Which quality do you need there? Bring that particular thing to the Lord in prayer. Tell a trusted believer what you’re asking God to help you practice. When you see them again, tell them how it went. That’s a conversation worth having, whatever kind of Thursday you’ve had.