Encouragement for the Family of God
9 December 2025
Reading From Jude
“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”
—Jude 3-4
Some things are worth contending for and faith is one of those. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “contend” as, “to strive or vie in contest or rivalry or against difficulties; struggle.” Jesus did not promise us an easy life on Earth. Rather, He told us, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”[1] We have His Presence within us to comfort, strengthen and guide.
There is so much struggle as we strive to follow Jesus. Sin is our default setting, so we must continually rely on the grace and mercy of our Heavenly Father as we turn away from sin and toward the light of the Son. Not only are there fightings and fears within, but also without. External forces battle against us and it is one of the missions of our adversary the devil to get us to abandon our faith and do whatever we please whenever we want to do it. We are not called to do what comes naturally to us, we are called to do what comes supernaturally to us through the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit of the Living God.
Jude reminds us not to use grace as an excuse to be immoral. We are not to take grace for granted. The grace, mercy and love of Jesus is transformative. God loves us just as we are but He loves us too much to leave us where we are. Grace is both the undeserved favor of God and the power of God at work within us and through us to accomplish things in life that we are not able to do on our own. As we struggle in our present reality, He gives us His grace to not only survive hard times, but to thrive victoriously as we look forward to the completion of our deliverance in the New Heaven and the New Earth. “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”[2]
The Greek word for grace in the New Testament is “charis” which is defined in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance as, “the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; gift.” It is used in the Scriptures as “the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues” It is the grace of God that saves us when we choose to trust Jesus. It is also His grace that empowers us by His Spirit to lead holy, loving, victorious lives.
Salvation is not only about forgiveness of sin, it is about restoring us to perfect relationship with the Father and to be remade in the perfect image of the Son. In I Corinthians 12, the spiritual gifts that believers operate in to build up the believers and therefore build up the Church are defined as “gifts of grace; a favor which one receives without any merit of his own.” Spiritual gift is the Greek word “charisma” and you don’t have to be a Greek scholar to know there is a powerful connection with “charis.” While we function in a spiritual gift, we are functioning in the grace of God. The Spirit flows through us as His imperfect vessels.
When we understand that salvation is not just a get out of hell free card, that it is about becoming more like Jesus, we do not use grace as a license to sin. Now we know that grace is not only about forgiveness of sin, but also deliverance from it unto righteousness. The very definition of salvation is to be delivered. We are saved from sin in order to live for God and He blesses us with everything we need for life and godliness according to His grace, mercy and love.
“We worship You, O Lord our God for who You are and all You have done for us. You have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. We are grateful for Your goodness and mercy to us. I pray that Your sons and daughters would not be complacent, but would contend for our precious faith, despite all hindrances, frustrations, trials and tribulations. In the midst of hard times, You continue to sustain us and empower us through the Presence of Your Spirit. Thank You Jesus. Amen.”
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us…The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.
—Romans 5:1-5, 20
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
—Romans 6:1-4
[1] John 16:33
[2] Hebrews 4:16
Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God 
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