January 4

Morning

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. — 2 Pet 3:18 BSB

"Grow in grace"—not just in one grace, but in all grace.

Grow in the foundation of grace, which is faith. Trust the promises more firmly than you have before. Let your faith grow in depth, steadiness, and simplicity.

Also, grow in love. Ask that your love may grow wider, deeper, and more practical, influencing your every thought, word, and action.

Grow in humility too. Seek to humble yourself and become more aware of your own smallness. As you grow downward in humility, also aim to grow upward by drawing nearer to God in prayer and having closer fellowship with Jesus.

May the Holy Spirit help you to "grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior." Anyone who doesn't grow in the knowledge of Jesus is missing out on blessings. To know Him is "eternal life," and the more we know Him, the more our happiness increases. If you don’t long to know more of Christ, then you don’t truly know Him. Anyone who has tasted His goodness will thirst for more, because although Christ satisfies, His satisfaction only increases our desire for Him. If you know the love of Jesus, you will long for deeper experiences of that love, just as a thirsty deer longs for water. If you don’t desire to know Him more, it means you don’t love Him, because love always cries, "Closer, closer!" Being apart from Christ is misery, but being in His presence is heaven.

So don’t be content without constantly growing in your knowledge of Jesus. Seek to know more about His divine nature, His humanity, His finished work, His death, His resurrection, His ongoing intercession, and His future reign. Stay close to the Cross, and explore the mystery of His wounds. An increasing love for Jesus and a deeper understanding of His love for us is one of the best signs of growth in grace.

Evening

Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. — Gen 42:8 BSB

This morning, we focused on our desire to grow in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Tonight, let’s reflect on how well our heavenly Joseph knows us. His knowledge of us was perfectly complete long before we had any knowledge of Him.

"His eyes saw our unformed body, and all the days ordained for us were written in His book before one of them came to be." Before we even existed, we had a place in His heart. When we were still enemies of God, He already knew us—our misery, our madness, and our sin. When we were overwhelmed with sorrow in repentance and saw Him only as a strict judge, He was already looking at us as His beloved brothers and sisters, and His heart longed for us. He never confused His chosen ones with others; He always saw us as the objects of His infinite love. "The Lord knows those who are His" is true whether we are prodigals feeding pigs or children seated at His table.

But, sadly, we didn’t know our royal Brother, and that ignorance led to many sins. We kept our hearts closed to Him, refusing to let Him enter our lives. We didn’t trust Him, doubting His words. We rebelled against Him, withholding our love and honor. The Sun of Righteousness was shining, but we didn’t see Him. Heaven itself came to earth, but we didn’t recognize it.

Thanks be to God, those days are behind us. Yet even now, we know so little about Jesus compared to how much He knows about us. We’ve only just begun to learn about Him, but He knows us completely. It’s a great comfort that the ignorance is on our side, not His, because if He didn’t know us, we’d have no hope. But He will never say, "I never knew you." Instead, He will acknowledge our names on the day of His return, and in the meantime, He will reveal Himself to us in ways the world will never know.