2 Peter 1:3-8 (NASB) ‘seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ‘
Throughout our temporal life, we will be a work in progress. Jesus, will continually be doing a work in us, reshaping us and remaking us, working us ever closer and closer to His image. That is His work and His work alone, but we have a responsibility, as well.
The other night, a friend came out to the archery shop. He was having trouble with consistency in his shot. He was having trouble pin pointing where the break down or downs were. One shot would break well, feel good and find the X, the next, not so much. I theorized on multiple possibilities, but as he tested, modified, tried and modified some more, things were not coming back together.
The problem here was, we sometimes do not “see the forest for the trees”. What’s that mean? We get so wrapped up in the details, we cannot see the whole picture, our scope is too small and we cannot see the solution in its totality. As, we worked through a series of shots, things were becoming clear. He was focusing on all these minute idiosyncrasies (which may have needed some tweeking), but was over looking a much bigger issue. Once discovered, the addressing of the bigger picture issue, pulled things back together. What needed corrected wasn’t anything he didn’t know how to execute correctly, he merely lost focus on the big picture because he was caught up in the details.
My point? Right… here goes. Don’t get so caught up in the details that you “can’t see the forest for the trees”. It’s not “I have to read this many chapters, pray for this many minutes, help this many people, say God bless you that many times, etc., etc., etc.” Those are the trees. When you focus on the forest ‘in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.’ the trees will grow in the places, numbers and size they need to. Have a blessed weekend.
In full pursuit of the greatest Trophy,
Scott Pace
