Add to Your Faith: Knowledge

Add to Your Faith:  Knowledge

Make every effort to add to your faith goodness;

and to goodness, knowledge...

2 Peter 1:5

When my kids were little, they loved to play the game, Who Am I?  I would pull a card that had four clues as to the identity of the biblical or historical person.  I would read one clue at a time and the girls would try to guess the identity of the individual.  The fewer clues it took to guess the right name, the more points one scored.  The clues were based on an interesting mix of factors:  physical appearance, personality, character attributes, location, etc.  The more the children knew about various Bible characters, the quicker the correct answer would come. After a few months of playing this game, I could barely say the first few words of clue #1  before someone knew the answer.

I am positive that biblical scholars would argue that Peter is talking here about gaining spiritual knowledge.  However, I think practical Peter just might be talking about self-knowledge:  Who am I?  What am I doing here?  What does God want me to do?  How can I fulfill my life's plans under His direction?   How can I benefit the peoples of the world or my community at large? 

King Solomon said, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death."  Knowing exactly who we are through God's guidance and revelation is the very foundation of our knowledge.  Everything else builds on that.

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Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth

Would care to know my name,

Would care to feel my hurt?

Who am I, that the bright and morning star

Would choose to light the way

For my ever wandering heart?

Not because of who I am

But because of what You've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who You are:

I am a flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow,

A wave tossed in the ocean,

A vapor in the wind.

Still you hear me when I'm calling,

Lord, you catch me when I'm falling.

And You've told me who I am -

I am yours 

-Casting Crowns