March 3, 2023 BUILDING UP YOURSELF
Jude 20-23 “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”
We must not be content with not growing in the faith, and we must not have the view point that God does everything for us. Throughout the New Testament, we find scriptures that call us to be growing in the faith, to be becoming more like Christ, to be walking according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh, and to take up the shield of faith and to be resisting our enemy. It is easy, and appealing, to live on a spiritual plateau-so we think; growth and change can be uncomfortable, perhaps even painful-we like our comfort zone. However, we are to be ‘building ourselves up in the faith;’ we must make the choice not to coast or be on auto-pilot on our spiritual journey. Essential aspects of our building ourselves up in the faith would include routinely reading God’s word; praying-talking to God; focusing our minds on the things of the Lord; renewing our minds; applying and living out the commands of God and the instructions of the scriptures; and being an active member of the body of Christ. Our motive in doing these things is not to gain God’s approval or earn His love; we do these things because He loves us and we belong to Him and it is our desire to please Him in all we do. There is benifit for us when we build ourselves up in the faith; we discover that walking the ways of the Lord fulfills our deepest longings-that is how God designed us. Certainly the world has many ways to distract us and to cause us to take our focus of the ways of God, but we are to keep ‘ourselves in the love of God.’ When we know in a personal way the love of God, it becomes our desire to grow in Him and to increase in the knowledge of Him. There is nothing that the world has to offer that can compare to knowing the love of God. Walking in His ways and having a priority of building ourselves up in the faith does not diminish our role and our responsibilities in the world; we are to do all we do as unto the Lord; we are to be faithful, to be honest, to be givers, to be gracious, and to have an attitude of serving and blessing others. Let us be spiritually alert, and let us be about building ourselves up in our most holy faith.
2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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