Lessons From the Spirit

It's amazing to me how intricately the Holy Spirit works in our lives to teach us things we need to learn. Even though I've only been in Portugal for two Sundays, I've tremendously missed being fed on Sunday mornings. Each Sunday here while the Pastor is opening in prayer, I pray myself that God would teach me even though there is a rather severe barrier in communication. This morning before I went to church I read the following blog post from Jason George and took in the lyrics of the song, which I have yet to hear:
http://jasongeorgeoutreach.com/?p=296
As I was at church this morning, praying that God would teach me, the Pastor was preaching out of 2 Peter 1 and I read the following passage:
"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall."
Reading Jason's post was an excellent reminder to me to be on the lookout for sin in my life- even more than being on the lookout- being on my toes so that it can be quickly taken care of the moment it creeps in- even when it seems small and insignificant. This passage of Scripture, then in the light of that reminder to me, gave me another much needed reminder and something that is sometimes a missing piece of the puzzle for me, what to REPLACE the pursuit of sinful desires with. I must pursue love, brotherly affection, godliness, steadfastness, self-control, knowledge, virtue and faith. God has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, by His divine power. Do we sometimes forget what an indescribable gift that is? He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them, we may become partakers of the divine nature. That's incredible. In response to such a gift I am inspired to practice godliness... and all the other qualities that Peter mentions.
Perhaps next time when sin creeps in I will be reminded to continually pursue these other qualities.
I'm humbled to know that the Spirit is teaching me.