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“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had
and bought it.” (Matt. 13:44-46)

Here are some timely questions for us to reflect on: How precious is our faith in God to us? What has this faith in the Living God done for us or given us? What are our expectations of God? The answers can be found in the writings of the Apostle Peter given in 2 Peter 1. He wanted to remind his listeners that their precious faith in God is based on God’s precious promises given to them in the Scriptures.

In 2 Pet. 1:1 Peter described our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as being precious, having received it through the righteousness of God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul also taught in Rom. 5:6-8: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone may possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The ultimate sacrifice from an Omnipresent, Omniscience and Omnipotent God was to save totally undeserving sinful humans created by Him from dust!

So, what do we do with a faith as precious as ours? On a personal level, 2 Pet 1:3-11 tells us that we need then to live a life of godliness and lists eight practical steps that we can take to achieve this. But we must each do our part, diligently, by making every effort (and personal sacrifice) in doing so. We can do this through God’s empowerment (Col. 1:9-12).

Peter further gave insight into what he had been doing with this precious faith in the Lord. He committed his entire life “as long as I live in the tent of this body” to teaching the Truth and preaching the Good News of Jesus because the Morning Star (2 Pet. 1:19; Rev 22:16) had risen in his heart. That’s Mission and Peter! What about Mission and Me? Has the Morning Star risen in our hearts? It should!