We keep ourselves in the love of God

^{by David Guzik - Enduring Word}

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Today, I want to talk to you about walking forward with God and to do so by looking Inward.

Teaching from the Apostle Jude

I'm going to read you from Jude, chapter 1, and thoroughly is one chapter in this book of Jude...
This is Jude, chapter 1, verses 20 and 21, where we read:

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.

(previously) Jude explained in his letter warnings about certain men who were a danger to the church. And in response, Jude did not tell us to go out and crush those certain men who were a danger to the church, instead, he told us to focus on our walk with the Lord, to help others who were affected by those certain dangerous men, and for us to put our focus on God.
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We are simply to pay such dangerous men no attention except what is necessary for our warning.
God will take care of them.

Keeping ourselves in the love of God

Now, in these verses, Jude emphasized for us each to keep yourselves in the love of God.
We know that God loves even the ungodly, that's in Romans chapter 5 or 6. The idea is that you must keep yourself in harmony with God's ever-present love.
God's love extends everywhere, and nothing can separate us from it. But we can deny ourselves the benefits of God's love.
An example of this is the prodigal son found in Luke chapter 15. That prodigal son was always loved by the Father, but for a time he did not benefit from the Father's love.
A) We keep ourselves in the love of God by building ourselves up on our most holy faith.
This means to keep growing spiritually and to keep building up. We are responsible for our own spiritual growth. Jude also showed us the frailty of men and how deceivers had infiltrated the church.
If you give your spiritual growth to someone else, not only will you fail to grow spiritually, you may very well be led astray.
Now, let's be clear, other people can help provide an environment that's helpful for spiritual growth. But no one can make another person grow in the Lord. We grow on the foundation of the truth.
B) We also keep ourselves in the love of God by praying in the Holy Spirit.
The battle against wrong living and wrong teaching is spiritual. It requires, as Jude mentions, prayer in the Holy Spirit. Many of our own prayers are directed by our own needs, by our own intellect, or by our own wishes and desires.
But there is a higher level of prayer. As Romans chapter 8 verse 26 says:

Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us.

C) Finally, we keep ourselves in the love of God by looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
As we keep the blessed hope of Jesus's soon return alive in our hearts, this effectively keeps us in the love of God, and it helps us to not give away our faith in any negative sense.
So see the three ways that Jude gives us to keep ourselves in the love of God:
· building up in the most holy faith,
· praying in the Holy Spirit, and
· looking for the merciful return of Jesus Christ.
If you do these things today, you can start enjoying the love of God that He freely gives unto you.

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