2 Peter 1:10 – Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;

Peter realized how hard it was for a Christian to be steadfast and victorious because of the wicked world we all live in. He said that in order to stay steadfast we must make our calling and election sure. What does that mean? This isn’t language most people are even familiar with. Peter was saying that our victorious life was dependent of settling once and for all our calling and election. This is our testimony, how God revealed Himself to you and brought you out of the world and gave you new direction and purpose. When your calling is settled in your heart no attack or demonic lie can cause you to drift off course. You have it all settled in your hearts and you have become steadfast. Here is how Barclay describes this.

“In view of all this, Peter urges his people to make every effort to confirm their calling by God. Here is a most significant demand. In one way, all is from God; it is God’s call which gives us entry into the fellowship of his people; without his grace and his mercy, we could do nothing and could expect nothing. But that does not absolve us from every possible effort.

Let us take an analogy, which, although not perfect, may help us to understand. Suppose someone offers financial assistance and the chance of a university education to a young student. The benefactor is giving that person something which could never have been achieved without help; but the student cannot make use of that privilege without being prepared to work, and the harder he or she works the greater the effect of the privilege offered will be. The gracious free offer and the personal hard work have to combine before the privilege becomes fully effective.

It is the same with us and God. God has called us in his free mercy and his unmerited grace, but at the same time we have to make every possible effort to toil upwards and onwards on the way.”

So we have been called and set apart by grace through faith we have to persevere and walk in this calling the Lord has put on our lives. As we take the steps along the road He has set before us we find ourselves empowered by His grace time and time again. There is not a chance of turning back because your calling as a Christian has been settled once and for all. Like Peter responded when Jesus asked Peter if he would forsake Him to, “Lord, I have nothing to go back to”.