BUILD ONE ANOTHER UP

Jude 1:20-21 NLT But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.

I expect we all know what it feels like when somebody has told us off or had a go at us. If we’re not on our guard it can really bring us down and there’s an old saying that if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all and that’s a challenge to us all!😊 

But here we are being called to build each other up in our most holy faith. That’s a bit different to just building somebody up in their ordinary day to day life. 

So how do we build up in our holy faith? I believe it’s when we draw alongside someone who is struggling to believe God is on their side, or that He loves them or even cares about them. It’s when we’ve been side swiped by the enemy when we didn’t see something bad coming and we really need a Godly friend at that point to let us know God is holding us secure and steady in His hand, that He hasn’t abandoned us and never will, that He says we’re going to be OK because He’ll bring us through.😊

We need to remind one another of God’s unconditional love for us, that He never gives up on us, and always gives us another chance. We need to know He’s not mad at us when we struggle, but that God is there to wrap His loving arms around us and lift us back up again. 

Jesus understands and can identify with us because He went through the things we do and I find that the most reassuring thing of all. He understands our struggles, our doubts and fears and, because He overcame them, He is interceding for us night and day with our Heavenly Father.

So let’s do our utmost to build one another up in our most holy faith, keep our eyes on Jesus, keep praying in the power of the Spirit, and keep ourselves in God’s love as Jude says.😊 Amen.