Growing in Your Faith

My grandma has this fun saying that she uses for especially slow cars and people, "If they were going any slower, they'd be going backwards." 
This is relevant to the post, I promise.
There is a passage I've discovered recently that's speakin' to my soul, yo. It is 2 Peter 1:5-9, which says this. 

"5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins."

I love this. Every now and then I sit down and reevaluate my life to figure out how I'm doing as a person, and what I need to do next. Sometimes it's obvious to me how I need to become more Christ-like, and sometimes it's not. That's one of the most frustrating things; knowing how far you have to go but having no idea how to make it there. 
But low and behold, Peter comes along 2,000 years before I needed him and wrote just what I needed for times like these. Let's summarize and apply! Not unlike the process of a makeup tutorial! Is that a good comparison to be using for this subject? Let's roll with it. ;)
This passage is essentially giving you a step by step guide on how to become more and more like Jesus. It's like a placement test. "Do you know God's word? Consider some self-control."
I have to say I appreciate how straight-to-the-point this is. 
And I had to look up what 'mutual affection' meant, it means harmony between people, especially in sympathy. You could change mutual affection out for patience and understanding with brothers and sisters in Christ. The word mutual is there, so I'm guessing the person with which you are in mutual affection must be as mature in Christ as you are. It's just kind of explaining that you'll be able to have better relationships with people, especially with those who have also grown in Christ a great amount. A reminder that I have so far to go. :'D But I love the challenge. 
"For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
INCREASING MEASURE, are our keywords here ladies and gentlemen. 
I think this is my problem. I go through growth spurts as I will call them from now on, where I make a good amount of spiritual progress, and then I think, "Good, well I think I've earned a break." Sometimes I treat my faith like a project that can be put aside when I want to focus on other things; I have to constantly remind myself that it's the most important project that I will ever take part in, and that I should really be putting more time into it. Kind of like college. Except I don't have plans to go to college, so that's not completely relevant.
But that break is when I start sliding backwards, becoming ineffective and unproductive. If I'm not constantly reading God's word, I forget it. If I take a break from being patient for only a day, I forget why I was using so much effort being patient in the first place. And I literally become ineffective, because I'm not being God's 5,000 candlepower flashlight to the world like I'm supposed to be. I start living for myself, which is dangerous, because I don't know what the heck I'm doing. I shouldn't be my own boss. 
This is just a great reminder that if it's not for the glory of the Lord, then what's the point.
And the last verse which I adore, "But whoever does not have [the qualities listed before] is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins."
So clearly humans are very forgetful. How do you forget that you're a clean slate once you're saved!? That's like forgetting the Alamo!!! Oh good gracious, I've forgotten what the Alamo was about...
Remember Calvary. With Jesus, Christians are like the blackboard of the future; say the word and the Lord makes you new, again and again. <3
What I take away personally from all this is that if you're not trying to be more like Jesus, you forget about Jesus. 
It's so easy to forget. 
Remember. 
Now, fly you fools, and be effective and productive.
-Lilly