The command we find here is to “Grow in grace”– not in one grace only but in all grace. Grow in the root-grace of “faith.” Believe God’s promises more firmly than you have in the past. Let faith increase in fullness, constancy, and simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed.

Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low and know more of your own nothingness. And as you grow downward in humility, seek also to grow upward, having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus.

And may God the Holy Spirit enable you to “grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.” If one isn’t growing in the knowledge of Jesus, then he is, in fact, refusing to be blessed. To know Jesus is the essence of “eternal life,” and to advance in the knowledge of him is to increase in happiness. If you don’t long to know more of Christ, then you don’t know much of anything about him yet. If you don’t desire to know him better, then you don’t love him, for love always cries, “Nearer, nearer.”

Don’t rest today until you are increasing your acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of him in his divine nature, in his human relationship, in his finished work, in his death, in his resurrection, in his present glorious intercession, and in his future royal advent. An increase of love to Jesus and a more perfect apprehension of his love to us is one of the best tests of growth in grace. [M&E]