Building Faith

Jude 1:20-25
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.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt;
23 snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear-- hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy--
25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
(NIV)


So how do we build up our faith? In Romans 10:17 it says that: “Faith comes from hearing the message.” The words of Christ are our building material. Each scripture is a 2x4 for our building of faith. As we listen to the scripture and obey it, we are hammering in the nails and strengthening our building. If we hear the scripture and do not obey it, then we just have a bunch of 2x4’s just lying around and nothing is accomplished. We have just collected a bunch of good material. At first our structure is weak, and we need additional support and back framing.

So how is my building project? Am I on schedule? Each person builds their building at their own pace. Years go by and some have built their house of faith and are adding on extensions. Others just have framed out a couple of walls and the lumber is turning gray. Deterioration is moving faster then the construction. Praying in the Holy Spirit is when God can step in and do a lot of building in a short amount of time. The lumber is renewed and progress is taking place. The vision is brought to life and the soul is revived. We can pray in the spirit anywhere, at any time. The best times for praying in the spirit are at church. Matt 18:20 “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."(NIV) As we are constantly building our faith and praying in the spirit Jesus steps in and inspects our building. He is like the Structural Engineer he notices the weak areas and draws up plans for reinforcing in those areas. Sometimes we build things wrong and we are going to have to read the ‘Engineers’ comments and make necessary adjustments. Grace and Mercy are like the finish out crew. They show up and make up for the rest bringing us to completion.

When it comes down to the bottom line, everyone is going to stand before God in judgment. Each one of us will come before the Lord, and our life will be on trial. We will be judged by our actions and our words! It is going to be God and me; one on one, face to face. All we will have is the life we have lived and how we lived it. Each person is responsible for their own life. There will be no shortcuts, no deferments, no extensions, and no second chances. We will either be ready or not ready. No one will be able to run away or hide from the judgment of God. We can’t rely on our Pastor, our spouse, or our friends; no one is going to be able to help us at that time. It is the responsibility of each person to build up their faith and be prepared for eternity. We are to grow and strengthen our faith in God. No one else can build my faith for me.