In his second epistle, Peter, who calls himself "a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ," gives a lesson in the addition of spiritual qualities which is good to contemplate and to practice. The writer begins by telling us that in all our adding of these qualities we are to use diligence. This excludes all hazy or lazy mental states, idle speculation, and negative thinking. Watchfulness and perseverance are needed to make sure that only good is included in our thinking.
According to Peter's enumeration of qualities, faith is our starting point, our first numeral to be learned. This faith is neither a blind nor an undefined trust. It is a practical dependence on Deity. Faith turns to God with steadfast constancy. Faith is the "evidence of things not seen," and it enables one to endure, "as seeing him who is invisible."
The Bible contains accounts of the death-defying faith of individuals in the one ever-present, all-powerful God, who at all times delivers from the woes of mortality those whose faith rests in Him. Glorious results were accomplished by faith that did not waver in the face of fiercest trials, because its possessor knew God to be invincible, irresistible, unchanging good.
