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Contend for the Faith
by Steve Troxel (Steve's bio)
[Note: If you'd like to read more from Steve, be sure to visit God's Daily Word.]
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As we draw closer to God and begin to understand His perfect holiness, we will also be made aware of the utter sinfulness of man and our hopelessness without Jesus. Each of us are born with a sin nature, and, if left to ourselves, would become "filled with every kind of wickedness." (Romans 1:29). It is not surprising how much evil abounds in the world. To a large degree, the world has rejected Christ and is a slave to sin. Darkness will always prevail in the absence of light.
Unfortunately, evil spreads like an ugly weed. It rides the back of the devil as he "prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8). It attacks all weakness and continually seeks to gain an entrance into our life. But as a child of God, we have a promise: "Resist the devil and he will flee." (James 4:7). Peter says we are to resist by "standing firm in the faith," (1 Peter 5:9).
We are to stand firm in the faith - but what does this mean? Standing firm means to not be shaken when the enemy tries to knock you down. But it also implies we know where we're standing. We must know our faith and be prepared to defend it when necessary. We must know what and why we believe.
Jude wrote only one short letter of the Bible. He began the letter with a desire to encourage his fellow believers with the joy of Salvation, but realized God was directing him to write a different message.
Jude 3
"Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints."
The church is definitely not immune from evil attacks. We are attacked from those outside the body of believers, but also from those who have "secretly slipped in among you." (Jude 4). These are people who claim to be called by God, but live an immoral life, deny Jesus as Lord (Jude 4), follow their own ungodly desires and seek to divide (Jude 18-19). We are told to fight this form of attack by strengthening our faith, "build yourself up in your most holy faith." (Jude 20).
We have been entrusted with the Gospel message of truth which must be protected from ever-present attacks. We must not allow the truth to be distorted for personal gain or diluted for greater acceptance. We fight this battle by knowing God better through study and prayer, testing all teaching against His Word, and being prepared to stand as we contend for the faith.
Copyright 2001, Steve Troxel. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
| About Steve Troxel: Steve Troxel is the President of God's Daily Word Ministries. Steve was trained as an Electrical Engineer and received his PhD in 1994. After working as a researcher in a laser laboratory for several years, Steve felt the call from God to leave his trained profession and enter into full-time ministry. His devotionals are now sent around the world via email as well as distributed in book format. More information about this ministry as will as a "sign-up" page can be found at: http://www.godsdailyword.org |
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