Jude 1:20-21 says:
20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
Do you know you have to KEEP yourselves in God’s love? It is an act on our part. His love remains true and present at all times, but we tend to wander away from His love and yearn for other people’s love instead – most of the time, love that another person isn’t capable of giving to us for a reason of their own (not because of who or how you are). But how do we do that? We build ourselves up in our faith and pray. That’s how we stay in God’s love.
To build yourself up means to continue building on the existing foundation. For all of us, that is the foundation of salvation, having been rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into His kingdom of glorious light. We need to remember what our foundation is, the unshakable love of God, His endless mercies toward us, and His chain blasting power working in and through us.
Faith means to be persuaded to trust someone, and in our case, that means entrusting God with ourselves and everything (including anyone) that is important to us. To build your faith means to add to the reasons why you are persuaded to trust in Him, every day, adding to your gratitude list.
It also means taking chances, taking risks, by moving out into unknown areas WHERE HE HAS LED YOU. Notice, I don’t mean where you go wandering off by yourself. I mean when He asks you to move out where you haven’t been before, and you take the chance to trust that He knows what He is doing and are persuaded that He is capable of taking care of all that is important to you.
Then there is prayer – communicating with our Father in order to be filled with His Spirit so we actually CAN move forward in faith. The thing most people don’t understand is that God doesn’t want us to try to do this on our own. He asks us to do something and then offers us His divine empowerment (his “grace) to obey Him. We access it by asking for it – through prayer.
He truly has given us everything we need for life and godliness. We just need to access it and keep moving forward toward Him day by day, in HIS power.
1. How has your faith been lacking or falling apart? In what areas of your life, and why?
2. How can you build up your faith today? What is God asking you to do that you are putting off for lack of trust or fear of the unknown?
Have a very blessed day, Pretty Princesses!