Jeremiah 50:24 English Standard Version (ESV) I set a snare for you and you were taken, O Babylon, and you did not know it; you were found and caught, because you opposed the Lord.

Chess has so many different opportunities to take advantage of an opponent that they have names. Gambit, swindle, trap, forks, pins, and the least favorite for beginners, the sacrifice.

While looking for a scripture to relate to these chess moves I found this passage in Jeremiah. A snare is a trap and traps in chess are only good if you know ones opponent well enough to offer one. They can go terribly bad if they do not work.

Here is the problem with playing chess with the Lord, He already knows the outcome. He not only knows how it will end but He knows what tactic to use in every situation.

The best chess players have studied all the openings, all the variations, analyzed their opponent and know how best to place them in a position where they are left with nothing but bad choices.

Now the Lord gave us free will and we may or may not discover we have made a series of bad choices and life has taught us how it feels to be on the losing side.

This is an opportunity to get on the winning side and listen to the One who knows how things will end and lead you through life and avoid the traps of life.

Free will is a tricky thing. We are free in Christ and we no long have to listen to the schemes of the devil but knowing that does not remove the mine field of life. Making the right move now does not mean our next footfall isn’t going to blow up on us.

The enemy knows who is complacent in their freedom. He has seen it before, he has studied human nature.

2 Peter 1:5-8 English Standard Version

⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The reason today’s title is “Why” is to point to the opening words. “For this reason” tells us why we should make the effort. The preceding verses explain why.

2 Peter 1:3-4 English Standard Version

³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

At the core of this reason is the love shown to us. It might not say that directly but the core of any effort to enhance or improve life there is love. The greater the love the greater the effort. God Himself, in the form of His Son gave up His place with the Father to come and be the Way to life with our creator.

Being partakers in His divine nature is everything that both grants us access to those precious promises and allows us to exercise those promises in the life we live with Christ. It is His glory and His excellence that is exercised in us by His very presence.

The motivation to do all these things Peter speaks to in verses 5 thru 8 has to be the love and gratitude we experience in His presence. We should be mindful of that and not take this relationship for granted.