“Dear friends, continue to build yourselves up in your most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love, as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” (Jude 20-21)
Lord Jesus, there are so many things in life we have zero control over. Like, our loved one’s happiness, our favorite team winning, weather fronts, whether or not we’ll finally catch a 20” + brown trout, or a toddler’s sleeping. But your half-brother, Jude, gave us four things we can always do, irrespective of circumstances and happenstances:
- Building ourselves up in the faith: How do we do this, Jesus? There’s certainly more than one way, but it always involves hiding your Word in our hearts—looking for you everywhere in the Bible, Jesus. For you are the “Yes” to every promise God has made (2Cor.1:20)—our righteousness, life, hero, Bridegroom, and King.
- Praying in the Holy Spirit: Not just “saying our prayers”—but adoring you, communing with you, seeking you, Jesus—meditating on your truth, goodness, and beauty. First and foremost, prayer is getting more of you, not getting more “Yeses” from you. It’s a life of communing with you, not controlling outcomes.
- Keeping ourselves in your love: Though this sounds like earning your love, it’s the opposite. The issue is preoccupation with your love and loveliness, not procuring them. Something(s), someone(s) will seize our attention, pondering, emotional bandwidth, and longings. May it always be you, and your multidimensional love, Jesus (Eph.3:19-20).
- Waiting for the mercy of your return: Not waiting to be adored by our kids, idolized by a spouse, having enough money, or for things/people to change. But waiting for the Day of your return—the most mercy-pregnant Day in the remainder of history. So Very Amen.