Nov 16, 2018
Make every effort to
add to your faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness,
mutual affection, & love. 2Peter
1:5-7
The goal of a
Christian life is to accumulate the character of Christ, not the bucket list of
the world.
Dave Freeman wrote the book “100 Things to Do before you
Die”. It was the book that led to the
popular movie called “The Bucket List”.
Freeman’s life was spent trying to accomplish all 100 activities, but he
died from a fall in his home at the young age of 47, only accomplishing half of
the list.
Some believe life is about accumulating a list. That list could be a set of experiences, a
list of assets, a set of skills, or a mixture of these. But God is not interested in any of
them. What God is looking for on our
list is the character qualities of Jesus.
Character is not like experiences or assets … you don’t own character
qualities, they must be practiced to be built.
And by working on one character quality, you open the door to grow
others.
Peter recognized the need for work on his own character out
of all his mistakes, and continued to work on his character the rest of his life. Later, when he wrote letters to the churches,
Peter encouraged others to devote their efforts toward character development,
by starting with faith and building from there.
It is impossible to have strong character without having a
growing faith. Faith is the first
quality that grows goodness, knowledge, self-control and more. As you build on faith, you can begin to build
the other qualities of Jesus in your life.
In the end, the strongest character quality is built – that of healthy
love. (Hint: If you’re lacking love in
your life, it is advisable to check out the other character qualities first.)
It’s easy to be distracted by all of the potential “things
to do” in life. But none of these are
carried over to eternity. Your character
DOES last eternally, and it has the blessing of keeping loved ones around you
as well. Dave Freeman died alone,
divorced and away from his family.
Better to have character and be surrounded by loving people than
experience great moments alone.
What are you doing to grow your character today?
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