The Abiding Roadmap by Bryan Craig

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  2 Peter 1:5-8 NIV

As most of you know, Influencers and The Journey are all about “abiding” with Jesus.  He told His disciples in John 15 and He tells us still today through His Word and His Spirit, “If we abide in Him, we will bear much fruit.”  We make a case in The Journey that the “fruit” is the “Fruit of the Spirit,” otherwise known as characteristics of Christ Himself.  We also talk about “fruit” being transformed lives and people joining Christ’s Kingdom.  I think most people get this concept, but so often, people still question what does it actually mean to “abide?”  We are so performance-driven and goal-oriented that we seem to want a formula or blueprint.  Of course, I believe The Journey process itself to be just that in some ways, helping individuals understand abiding as they begin to see the intimate relationship with God that is possible.  But beyond that, it seems we still want a bit more tangible, practical explanation of what this abiding life looks like.

That’s why I love the passage I’m quoting above in 2 Peter.  Here’s Peter, one of the people who was with Jesus when He spoke John 15 about abiding.  And he’s trying to help the early believers understand what this life of faith looks like.  As he does this, I believe he is giving us what we are looking for as abiders.  I’ve written about this verse before a few times.  God gave me this passage at a time when I was trying to understand the spiritual progression, even before I met Rocky and went through The Journey.  I love the way Peter describes each step as a building block for the next step.  So, for those who are looking for the formula, here you go.

• Faith is the starting point, of course. Without faith, you cannot go further.
• Add to your Faith, Goodness (or Virtue). People of Faith should be good people, doing good for the world.
• Add to your Goodness, Knowledge. So, we start out with Faith and with a desire to be good, and we realize how little we know about such things, so a hunger develops for God’s Word and how to live this life of faith.
• Add to your Knowledge, Self-Control. The more we know about the life God expects of us, the more we will see our sin nature, bad habits, and areas of temptation.  We realize we have a battle between flesh and spirit.  Self-control helps us keep in check.
• Add to your Self-Control, Perseverance. By the time we get to this stage, we realize this is not going to be an easy life.  Besides our struggle with our self, there are trials and struggles in life that will certainly test our faith.  If we are going to be in this for the long haul, we must have perseverance.  This is the place where many before us have turned back and given up. 
• Add to your Perseverance, Godliness. Yes, just like John 15 says that abiding leads to fruit, which we said was Christlike characteristics, we have the blessing of becoming more godly.  But remember, this is on the other side of perseverance. 

Years ago, a friend of mine put this verse on a sort of grid to get a visual representation of it, and he put the word “perseverance” like a long, uphill climb to get to these greater attributes, like godliness. 

Some have called the seasons of perseverance a “dark night of the soul” or a “wall” that is very difficult.  In these times, other people are not able to help us.  It is a time for us to go through it with the Lord.  Many of you know what I’m talking about.  But Good News!  On the other side of this mountain is amazing fruit.

• Moving on with our progression, add to your Godliness, Mutual Affection. At this end of the progression, we have started dying to ourselves and our life is more about God and others.  We start caring more about others than ourselves.  It’s a beautiful thing, as we do start to look more like Jesus.
• Lastly, add to your Mutual Affection, Love. Yes, the greatest of all is Love.  Jesus said to boil down all the commandments, Love God and Love Others.  So God’s goal in taking us through all of this spiritual maturation is what?  To make us more Loving!

If you keep reading 1 Peter 1, he goes on to say that each of these are “qualities” that the believer, or should I say the “abider,” should practice.  He says they will keep us from being unfruitful or unproductive.  He says if we are not practicing these, we are blind.  But if we do, we will confirm our calling and will never fall.  Powerful words.

By now, you may be feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or still wondering HOW you can possess these qualities.  Oh, I didn’t quote verses 3-4:

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Once we have Faith in Jesus, we belong to God, and He “gives us everything we need for a godly life,” namely the Holy Spirit.  All of these amazing qualities are ours.  They are within us.  But we must put them into action.  How?  By abiding!

For me, this looks like:

• Daily seeking Him in His word.
• Processing life with Him in my journal and in Prayer.
• Paying attention to the Holy Spirit’s promptings all day long.
• Looking for opportunities to serve Him in small and big ways.
• Trying to put Him first, others second and myself last.
• Offering my body as a living sacrifice.
• Daily choosing the Lord over the world.

You could call things like this “disciplines” of a “disciple” but I think they are more of a lifestyle.  But I have found in the midst of this abiding life, I discover the qualities that Peter outlines.  God gives us everything we need!  Recently, I realized that I needed some “perseverance” and God guided me to this passage, to help me realize I already have it! 

I hope this makes sense to you, and I hope it encourages you.  God is mysterious, but He is not Confusing.  He wants us to know He has a plan and by the way, His plans are always good.