August 25th, 2024

17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

This faith is one of brutal perserverance. A reason people tend to avoid or leave the faith is that they expect God's will to bend in their favour instead of bending to God's unchangable will. What happens, happens, good or bad, it was meant to be that way. We do not live in the faith of Jesus for our own self gain, because then our repentance would be superficial and meaningless. We live with the faith in our hearts that Jesus is our only way to salvation because we know who is deserving of worship and a life of devotion, God. We see our lowly place as humans, how our sin has doomed us for hell (godlessness) so the only way out of this is through Christ. Even with everything ungodly happening in us, all the influences of a modern world always trying to crush our faith, we have to still look only to Him, and put our complete trust in the fact that He will save us. We have to always try and cooporate with people that hate the fact that you believe in Christ. You must always try to use the grace of God in your actions and words to show that. To ignore and throw away the people that do not have the faith is selfish and ungodly in itself, because as humans we are all equally low, but with God's perfection, it is always possible that he will give the gift of faith to any person, from any place, with any belief. There are many scoffers who do follow their ungodly passions, people who embrace the sin of humanity rather than trying to see any sort of escape from it. So many people let little misunderstandings and misinterpretations destroy their faith, if you do not feed the flame of your faith and make an active effort, then it will die out. Show care to your faith and actively try to improve your relationship with God through prayer. When I find myself in a moment of sin, where I am not fully considering God in my day, I try to take the time to read some of His word and talk to Him in prayer. This is what the text means by building ourselves up in the faith, making an active and constant effort to express your faith of God's ways in your interractions with his world and repenting for any inevitable sin along that journey. I have realized to try not to actively seek material outside the Bible to see its integrity, this is only a distraction and with a true faith, we do not need to be constant questioning what we know to be true. The Bible, a collection of texts that is 1000s of years old, inspired by the Holy Spirit, hold up to all the destructive changes of human history and still remain, superior and the best source to see our path to salvation. Be open with your faith, something I have trouble with sometimes, but if we truly believe in Christ, then we cannot keep this to ourselves, that makes it superificial. With God, you can truly see why you do not deserve God's grace, so to be given it through the things He has given you shows me that it must be an obligation, through the scoffers and everything else, to live and rejoice in His name. The way people see us, the scoffing, our reputation, our money, will mean nothing when we come to die, the only true thing that is preserved and timeless is God. We cannot pick and choose within our faith what we think is true to fit modern cultural pressures, we must trust that the original Bible is the word of God and is like Him, timeless. An example of the way people do this is the cultural norm to see sunday as just another day, we must untilize it to go to church and to strengthen our faith for another week of wordly living, a life brought on by the consequence of sin. We must appreciate everything He has given us, because everything He has given us is both undeserved and good. This scripture tells us to only look towards God, through thick and thin, and to try to help others realize that way of living. Jesus has mercy on us and we should live by that example with the guidance of the Holy Spirit to show mercy towards others, especially your enemies. We need to always try and build up our faith and to live our lives dependant on that faith.

Dear lord, keep me away from ungodliness and continue to guide me in the only correct way, your way, and please help others see that as well. I trust wholeheartedly that your will is the only thing that is always correct, and I thank you so much for the gifts you have given me. Amen