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Build Up Your Faith Through Prayer
In our key verse today, Jesus’ brother Jude motivates us with an action plan to keep ourselves in God’s love through three actions.
First, we are to build ourselves up in our faith. Building ourselves up in our faith involves growing in our knowledge of the truth. Building takes effort. You need a building plan, resources, a team of co-builders, and time available for the building. Studying the Word, soaking up its truths, and then applying that truth in our lives builds us up in our faith.
Second, we are to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. By praying passionately and wholeheartedly we discern the mind of God. My fellow elder and brother Terence recently stated it well in describing prayer as a three-step process. We communicate with God, listen to Him, and then obey Him. Sometimes we fall into doing only one or two of these steps, but possibly not the other one or two. It is literally life changing when we communicate with God, listen to what He has to say about His will for our lives and then obey. This is enjoying the presence of God!
Praying is an activity that has eternal significance. God’s kingdom is advanced when we pray as His will is done. Matthew 6:10, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
In Luke 6:12, Jesus spends the entire night in prayer with God before he chose his twelve disciples the next morning. Henry and Richard Blackaby state that if the Son of God required a night of prayer in order to determine the Father’s mind, how long might it take us in prayer to clearly determine our Father’s will? The more we are in communication with our Creator the more we are in tune with his will for our lives.
Finally, we are to eagerly await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Longing for eternal life reveals that the center of our existence is not this world, but the next one. We live in this world, but are not of this world.
We must exert effort and diligence to keep ourselves in God’s love, but finally and ultimately we are victorious because of the grace of God. Behind all of this effort is His sustaining grace. He is the one who prevents us from falling.
Praying is central to building up our faith and keeping ourselves in God’s love as we eagerly wait for the return of Jesus.
Chuck -
Great Blackaby quote…
How long am I willing to endure in prayer in order to hear from God, be directed, and see his specific will? God, help me and prompt me. I so need this year of prayer.
Thanks Chuck. Glad you’re leading the team.
alan
Thanks for the good words Chuck. Nothing quite like being deployed in a forward area to crystallize things for you…or so I have heard. I love the Lewis quote that goes something like.. prayer is not to change the will of God but that God would change me. I’ve come to realize prayer is the will of God and when we do it we participate with Him in His good and perfect will. O.k., so when do you start seminary?
The spirit of God is showing us something, we need to live a victorious life in Christ consistently. In romans 12: 12-13. He noted that though there’s tribulation all around us, we should be constant, that is, consistent, in prayer. Constant communion helps to build love and make it stronger. Prayer is a communion that builds our relationship with our heavenly Father. That means, for us to grow and strengthen our love for him, we have to learn to pray more. There’s a transformation that takes place in our lives when we spend more time to commune with God in prayer. Our character and thoughts are continually influenced by his pressnce, and we’ll become more like him in our reasoning and ways of doing things, Then, then, we will be transported to a higher realm of the supernatural where nothing will be impossible to any of us, Hallelujah! So we see, prayer is guaranteed to change our lives, if we do it consistently. This is why we are admonished to be constant in prayer.
Chuck, I am so very proud of your commitment to serve God. Your church is fortunate to have you with all your leadership skills. I know this position will also help you to grow in your faith even more. Thanks for sharing your words with me.