2 Peter 1:12-15 “Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.” Today's episode talks about how Peter is taking care of his fellow followers and how we can talk care of our children as well. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Our Children Need A Personal Encounter With Jesus
2 Peter 1:12-15 “Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.”
This week we have been talking about this whole section of 2 Peter 1. We have covered 2 Peter 1:3-15. To give you a quick summary of the previous verses, God has given us everything we need for life and godliness through His divine power. Then Peter tells us we need to supplement our faith with a list of qualities, these are listed in 2 Peter 1:5-7 which says, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” Then yesterday we learned that these are the qualities that keep us from being unfruitful or ineffective with our knowledge of the Lord. Those who lack these qualities are nearsighted and blind and have forgotten that they were cleansed from their former sin. If you would like to explore these verses more, please go back and listen to the previous episodes #489, 490 & 492.
I think today’s verse is a beautiful example of how Peter took care of his fellow followers. Peter knew these qualities were important. He knew if his brothers lacked these qualities they would be nearsighted and blind and he didn’t want that for them. I also love that he is encouraging them. He explains to them that he knows they already have these qualities and they are already grounded in the truth. He goes on to say that as long as he is alive he will keep reminding them of how to live so that when he is no longer around they will remember. I am sure they were learning so much at the beginning. Everything Jesus was telling them was new to them. Jesus was giving them a renewal of the mind and this is important for all of us.
Peter could see how important it was to hear things over and over again. We don’t usually remember things after hearing them the first time. We learn best through repetition. Also, it was good that Peter could prepare them for the day when he was no longer among them. I am sure it was a lot for Peter to think about how they were going to do without him there. I remember reading about when Jesus knew His time was coming to an end He would get frustrated with the disciples and ask them, “How long will I be here with you?” (Matthew 17:17) It sounds like Peter was worried as well that they might not remember all they had learned after he left. This is a concern I think we all have.
Peter’s concern might be on a greater scale as he was in charge of shepherding the entire Catholic Church and yet we still worry that those we are in charge of will forget all we have taught them. We don’t even wait until we are about to die to worry, we worry they will forget when we are still alive and yet not living with them. We are afraid when they go out into the world they will forget all we taught them. We worry for them. Even when they are adults, we worry for them. My oldest is barely an adult, so I don’t have a lot of experience in this area but I have talked with a lot of other moms who have grown children and they say we never stop worrying about them.
I think Peter shows us a great way to shepherd our children in this verse. He reminds them of what is important and then explains why it is important. He also encourages them and lets them know they are already doing a great job. I think it is ok to remind our kids of the important things we want them to remember and yet I also think it is important to not remind them too often. We absorb so much when we are children. The things you felt were important for your children to do when they were growing up, they will remember. My kids don’t always have the best manners at home, however, they have great manners when they go out because we emphasized that when they were young. As much as I think it is good to remind our kids of things, I think we also have to be careful we don’t do it so often that we make them feel like they are doing it wrong or that they don’t remember how to do it. I think we need to have a little faith that we were actually good parents and they did hear the things we said, even if it didn’t seem like they did.
One difference between the brothers that Peter is talking to and our children is that the brothers Peter is talking with are eager to grow closer to God, they are eager to learn all they can about God, many times, our children are not. If this is the case, I feel we need to tread lightly. We want our kids to carry on the faith when we pass away and yet they seem to have no interest. In this case, it wouldn’t be beneficial to constantly be reminding them of all the things you have taught them over the years. You have taught them, they heard you and yet they don’t want to access that information right now because they don’t see how it affects their lives in any way. I think if we want to reach our children, young or old, the best way will be through a personal encounter with Jesus. This is not something we can orchestrate for them, however, this can give us something specific to pray for them. When they are going through a hard time, we can ask for God to use their difficult time as an opportunity for them to encounter Jesus in a personal way.
If we constantly remind our kids of everything we have taught them over and over again they will feel as though we don’t think they learned anything. They will think we don’t think they are smart enough to remember it. It’t not that I think we shouldn’t mention God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit to our children, I definitely think we should. However, I think if we are constantly nagging them our our beliefs they might close a door to God because they are tired of hearing about him. I know God is capable of overcoming any obstacles and I also know it would be easier if their hearts weren’t hardened to Him because we shoved our beliefs on them over and over again. I think there is a happy medium somewhere and we can stay at that happy medium until God answers are prayers for that personal encounter with Jesus for them. I think the important thing to remember is to never give up hope that they will come back to God. He is a miraculous God and He won’t let your kids be lost. He will leave the 99 to go and find them!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help those we are responsible for teaching to have an open heart and an open mind when we are teaching them. Help them to understand that when we are reminding them of things it is because we love them and we want them to remember them. We love our children Lord and we ask that you help each and every one of them to have a personal encounter with Jesus. We know you will save our children Lord, we know you will leave the 99 to bring them home. We ask you to give us patience and perseverance as we wait for your timing Lord. We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed weekend!