“But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for mercy…” Jude 1: 18
First, let me express my appreciation to all the mothers reading this today. In whatever form your nurturing takes, you are deeply appreciated. Nobody labors for family quite like mothers, and sometimes—many times—we fail to acknowledge all we have because of another’s sacrificial giving. Let us all rise today and call them blessed!
Today’s Good Word ~ Bigger on the Inside, reminds me of what is required of us each day to keep the faith, run our race, and finish our course. It is only as we build our lives upon a foundation of absolute trust in God and dependence upon the enabling power of the Holy Spirit that we can stand strong. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can put to death the deeds of the flesh. If we do not, Paul wrote in Romans 8:13, we will die. We cannot escape the reality that sin pays wages—and those wages are death—but the Spirit gives life!
The Apostle Paul prayed that we would be “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16), and exhorted believers to “be strong in the Lord” (Ephesians 6:10), drawing strength from Him and being empowered through our union with Him and the power of His boundless might. He also encouraged Timothy to “be strong… in the grace that is to be found only in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).
It is wonderful to know that the Word tells us to strengthen ourselves, but the “how to” is found in today’s verse: we build ourselves up on the foundation of our “most holy faith” by praying in the Spirit.
Romans 8 tells us that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weaknesses because we do not know how to pray as we ought, yet He always prays God's perfect will for us and through us. It is by joining with Him in prayer that we are built up and become bigger on the inside.
The NLT of 1 Corinthians 14:14–15 states: “For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don’t understand what I am saying. Well then, what shall I do? I will pray in the spirit, and I will also pray in words I understand.”
When there is a lack of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11), as we lean into alignment with the Holy Spirit and pray, we become filled with all that is necessary for the moment.
This is what is so absolutely wonderful about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives: every need is supplied in and through Him. Wisdom is the principal thing. Sometimes I think I need something else, but wisdom and understanding speak to every situation and reveal the way of escape.
Being bigger on the inside assures me that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, because greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.