I once heard a baseball coach ask the best player on his team an odd question.  What makes you better?  In other words, how can we take the talent that you have and keep it on a path of improvement?  We often think of improvement only in regard to areas of weakness.  We might have expected the coach to ask his worst player what would make him better but not the best player.  Maybe we have a slightly distorted view of both the reason and the method for improvement.

We should all be engaged in a process of improvement.  We should not be interested in improving ourselves just because some weakness is exposed or because we fail at something important.  People shouldn't try to improve as a husband or a wife only when their marriage is on the rocks.  People shouldn't try to improve as parents only when their child is in crisis.  We shouldn't wait to try and improve as an employee only when we are about to be dismissed.  A better term for improvement might be growth.  We must build into our lives regular processes that give us an opportunity to grow.  Weakness is not the primary reason for growth or improvement.  Growth is not something we do to address a specific problem.  We shouldn’t just try to fix our worst characteristic.  We shouldn’t seek to grow only when things go bad or we come under some great pressure.

In Peter's second letter he listed a series of qualities that his readers should add to their Christian lives.  He listed things like knowledge, self-control, kindness and love.  After listing these qualities he made a very interesting point.  He said if they had these qualities and these qualities were increasing then they would not be ineffective in the knowledge of Christ.  Most of us believe that we have self-control but Peter pointed out that it was not enough just to have it but that it be increasing.  So no matter where you are on the spectrum of self-control or knowledge or love it is important to move further along the scale.  This can only occur if we have processes built into our daily lives that allow and promote growth.

In this text Peter gives two reasons for growth.  He says we need to grow in order to partake of what God has promised us.  Secondly we need to grow so that we can escape the corruption in the world.  We grow in order to partake of things that undeveloped lives will never enjoy.  We grow in order to rise above the corrupting influences.  For example, people who grow will be able to participate in things that God has made available like strong marriages, deep friendships, good families, and a rich spiritual life.  None of these things ever happen by just going with the flow.  They must be grown into. People who do not grow will be unable to escape the negative destructive influences around them.

So how do we grow?  Peter makes three critical points about growth in the book of Second Peter.  Growth is possible because God has provided the ingredients for growth.  Growth comes by building on what you already have.  Growth produces fruit. 

Peter said that everything that pertains to life and godliness had been provided in the knowledge of Jesus.  The point is that we have the necessary ingredients already incorporated into life as we know it.  Most people who are not growing would like to elevate their state in life.  No one wants to live a stagnant disintegrating kind of life.  But most people turn to the wrong tools to elevate their lives.  Improvement is often seen as an inward activity that is accomplished by finding something inside ourselves.  People believe they will grow by getting in touch with their inner selves or finding some great person buried deep inside.  God has given us the tools for growth but they are not hidden inside us.  The capacity and the potential are inside us but Jesus is the transforming soil of life and we must bury ourselves in Him.  The reasons and motivations for self control and love come from God and must be learned and received and incorporated.

Growth is a building process.  Peter pictured spiritual growth as a process of adding important qualities to our lives and then seeking to increase them.  The value of this is obvious.  It allows us to begin where we are by simply having an honest idea of our genuine strengths and weaknesses.  It also allows us to focus our attention on particular qualities instead of trying to be everything we are not.  Some people are very loving so Peter would allow that person to then add knowledge to that loving nature and make it effective in the cause of Jesus.  All the qualities of growth have an effect on the other qualities so they build upon each other.  If we pursue growth in one important spiritual characteristic then we will find a lifting effect on our whole person. 

The activities of growth produce validating fruit from Gods hand.  When we engage ourselves in the interest and activity of growth, God brings about legitimate growth. There are many great ways to see improvement in ourselves besides being pretty or having more money.  There is growth in love and trust and hope and joy and patience.  These are the fruit of Gods hands and require no pretense.  This builds upon itself by providing genuine motivation to keep going.  It brings about elevated lives by making these qualities a true part of who we genuinely are.  The embraced desire to grow combined with honest effort gives God the freedom to provide it as he sees fit.  A plant doesn't grow because we make it grow.  It grows because we give it water and soil and sunlight and the seeds capacity is released.

My final point is about the daily incorporation of growth activities.  Every one of us needs some kind of regular trigger activities.  Growth doesn't come because we make it happen, it comes because we allow it to happen.  Something in your life has to be the open door.  Growth requires reflection, openness, and engagement.  Many people live as though breathing is going to bring about growth.  Living hard, many struggles, much time passed, none of these are  the causes of growth.  Growth comes because we engage in the use of our human capacities to make room for God to bring about spiritual growth. 

God has prepared all the ingredients for your growth.  He simply expects you to participate in the process of bringing them all together.