Daily Manna · Day 81 · March 22
Everything Provided
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:”
Peter opens his letter with a sentence that is meant to steady you: "his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness."
Stay with the word "given." In Greek it is in a tense English does not quite have. It describes something finished in the past whose result is still standing today. God is not saying He gives, or will give, or might be willing to give. He has given, and the gift is still there. In the very next line Peter uses the same word again: "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises." So the whole opening of his letter rests on a delivery that has already been made.
Notice the limit in the sentence, because there is one, and it is a generous one. It says "all things that pertain unto life and godliness." That is everything you need to live the way God has called you to live. It is not everything you want, and it is not everything that would make this year easier. It is a shorter list than your wish list. It is also a longer list than your patience feels like it can reach this morning. Peter even names the way it reaches you: "through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." It comes through knowing a person, and no technique or stricter schedule can take the place of that.
Maybe yesterday, halfway through a hard conversation, you ran out of patience again, and it felt as if you never had enough to begin with.
So you were given enough. God has given it, and it is still there. The honest question is what you were drawing on when you ran dry, and how much time you have spent lately with the One it all comes through. Go back to Him today. What He has given has not run out.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 81 is Where Daniel Drew It (Daniel 1:8).