Build Yourself Up

Jude 20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray 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.
 
I stopped at Jude’s words, “build yourselves up in your most holy faith”. After all, isn’t it God’s Spirit who builds us up into a greater faith? How can we do it ourselves?
    Of course, God must open our minds to faith. But it is still true we do have a choice on how we respond to our faith. The Bible has many encouragements to know, obey and live into God’s Word. Jude, then, is encouraging us with four ways to build up, to deepen our faith, so we can resist false teaching and have only a minimal faith.
    1) Build yourselves up in your most holy faith. This holy faith is Jesus’ teachings received in the church from the apostles. To build yourself up in these teachings requires both learning and doing as Jesus taught, and the apostle Paul instructed: 2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
    2) Pray in the Holy Spirit. Do you have trouble with prayer? It’s difficult some days to take appropriate time to pray and to know what to pray, isn’t it? We are taught, though, to rely on the Holy Spirit to open our minds and mouths to prayer. Seek the Spirit’s lead to know what to pray. Discern what he brings to your mind. Use Scripture to open your thoughts to praise and petition God. Pray in the Spirit’s power to fight the forces that oppose God. Pray for God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth.
    3) Keep yourselves in God's love. In other words, be faithful to obey God’s commands. You keep God’s love in you when you keep his commands. 4) Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. You build yourself up when you remember and believe Jesus’ amazing promise recorded in John 14:2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. Can anything harm you when you know the Lord Jesus has a place for you? Do you want anything the world offers above what Jesus offers?
 
Life Thought: Build, pray, keep and wait with a mind on Jesus’ teachings.