‘…Building yourselves up on your…faith…’ Jude 1:20 NKJV
The apostle Jude writes, ‘But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.’ Jude places the responsibility of building yourself up spiritually and strengthening your faith where it belongs-squarely on you. There are two kinds of faith: mechanical faith and intentional faith. Each time you flip on a light switch you’re exercising mechanical faith. But when you face the unknown, the untried and the undone, you need intentional faith-faith that believes God to do ‘…exceedingly abundantly above all that [you] ask or think…’ (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV) If you’re proactive, your faith will grow. If you’re passive, it won’t. Like the action of water rushing against a riverbank, there’s an erosion of faith that comes simply from living every day. If you don’t do anything to secure and strengthen your faith it begins to deteriorate. Christ told the church at Ephesus to remember the heights from which they had fallen (Revelation 2:5). What a strange thing to say! If you fell from a significant height, don’t you think you’d remember it? Not if the fall was so gradual that you didn’t notice it. So ask yourself: ‘Have those who know me best begun to notice the gleam has gone out of my eye, the joy out of my step, the peace out of my spirit and the Word of God out of my conversation?’ Faith is like a muscle; if you don’t exercise it consistently it will atrophy and become powerless. So the word for you today is: ‘…Strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die…’ (Revelation 3:2 NKJV)
SoulFood: Rev 15-18, Matt 24:36-51, Ps 13, Pr 8:14-16
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright 2012
