| | | | Stay in the Flow (Part 2) - Jude 1:20-21 But you, beloved, building yourselves up 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. Jude 1:20-21
In yesterday's post (if you missed it, read it HERE), we looked at how the waterfall of God's love, His blessings, and His protection are ALWAYS flowing. And while it's not possible to turn off the flow of God's love, it is possible to move ourselves out of the stream. So in his letter to the church. Jude gave us three ways to keep ourselves in the love of God: - Build ourselves up in the faith;
- Pray in the Holy Spirit, and
- Look for the return of Jesus Christ.
Today we're going to look at the first one: Building ourselves up in the faith.
So… how do we build up our faith? Fortunately the bible tells us how:
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17
In other words, in order to grow in our faith, there must be a continual, intentional, and purposeful practice of spending time studying and meditating on God's word. Put simply, our faith will not strengthen without time in God's word!
If you think about it, in order to be effective at anything; your job, a sport, or a hobby, you must spend time learning, practicing, honing your skills, and growing in your ability in that area. A person might be born with great musical or athletic ability, but without practice and training, that ability will not benefit that person one bit.
My son loves basketball, and his current favorite player is Kevin Durant, the #1 player in the NBA. Now we would all agree that Kevin Durant is gifted with the ability to play basketball, but what makes Kevin Durant an excellent player is the fact that he has worked hard for years to develop that gift. When asked why he's such a great player, Kevin Durant responded:
"I was always in the gym. People would look at me crazy because I spent so much time there. But that's what it was about. I'm glad I did it. I know that the hard work got me here. And the day I stop working hard, this can all go away."
For Kevin Durant, there's nothing more important than growing as a basketball player. For the Christian, there's nothing more important than to grow in our faith. And, according to Jude, we are responsible for our own spiritual growth. We cannot wait for spiritual growth to just happen, or expect others to make us grow.
So if we're to accept this responsibility, what is our regimen? - Daily time reading, studying, and meditating on God's word.
- Being part of a regular bible study, where we come together with other Christians to encourage and keep one another accountable.
- Regular church attendance to hear and receive the word of God from gifted teachers.
Christian, if you'll implement these things in your life, I promise you, your faith will grow!
"Faith is essential to the day-to-day effectiveness and readiness of the Christian. The Christian considers faith an indispensable aspect of leadership. The habits of self-discipline required to gain and maintain a high level of faith are inherent to the Christian way of life and must be a part of the character of every Christian."
Pastor Clay | | | | | | | |
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