Connect360: In-Tents Living

• Lesson Four in the Connect360 unit “Find Us Faithful: Standing Firm in Our Faith” focuses on 2 Peter 1:12-15

Although Peter’s readers believed and trusted in God, they still needed to be reminded to live in the Spirit.

Since the things of this world are visible, audible and tangible, they often distract us from the invisible, spiritual and immaterial things of God.

As humans, we see clearer with our eyes than we perceive in our spirits. We hear louder with our ears than in our thoughts. We feel more concretely with our hands than in our hearts. We walk better with our feet than in his will.

But we are not without spiritual discernment.

These bodies are just tents that house our spirits. It may take more intentionality and awareness to perceive, understand and sense the spiritual things of God while we are living in this world, but they are the only things that will last.

Second Corinthians 4:18 says, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

So, we cannot let ourselves get complacent or idle regarding spiritual things.

No matter how great our relationships and lives on this earth seem, there will never be a more important relationship than the one that will last forever.

We will never have a more fulfilling or longer-lasting relationship than the one with our Creator, Father, Lord and Savior.

Mark 12:30 says, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

Only God can love and care for us perfectly. So, we should feed and nurture our relationship with him more than any other and strive to grow closer to him every day.

James 4:8a says, “Come close to God and he will come close to you.”

We can see, hear and know him better by doing several different things. By reading God’s word, we gain knowledge and understanding of who he is and how to walk with him.

We should be like Job, who said, “I have not failed the command of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).

Then, by praying, we learn to communicate with him, rely on him and hear his voice.

Colossians 4:2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.”

But even when we are not sitting down to read the Bible or directly talking with the Lord, he is with us as we go about our day.

So, by being aware of his presence, we will see what he is trying to show us and recognize him as he works in our lives.

Psalm 105:4 (ESV) says, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!”

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