Contending For The Faith

Jude 1:3

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the uncommon salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and to exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.

It is not uncommon for me to hear people say things like, “ Well, I don’t know what is going on, I was prayed for by so and so it just didn’t work, I am still sick, or I am still in debt, or I still don’t have a job.” They continue on in naming whatever the problem may have been. Many people think that just getting prayed for is walking in faith. They think that if they agree with something then they are having faith.

Let me tell you that faith is not just a one time prayer or an agreement in you mind with that prayer. Faith is not passive. By this I mean that it is not something that you have done to you or for you. Some think that if they will go and get someone, especially one whom they know is anointed with power, to pray for them , that this is operating in faith. Faith is not a passive thing, as I said earlier, like going to a surgeon and lying down on the operating table so that he can remove the problem. This may work in the medical world, but that is not the faith principle. Faith is an active thing. The one who needs the miracle is to do more than just lay on some spiritual operating table and say,”Ok, go ahead and use your faith on me.” It is something that you must take part in on your own. You need to exercise your faith along with the one who is praying for you. Joining together in the fight against the devil.

Faith is a fight, one that you enter into on your own behalf. That is why this verse says that we must earnestly contend for the faith. The term, earnestly contend, means to fight sincerely. If you are going to get what you are believing for and praying for, you have to be “ pit bull tenacious.” That means that you grab hold of this thing and will not let go of it until you get your answer. Jesus told one man, “be it done unto you according to YOUR faith.” Whatever you are needing, earnestly contend for it, fight for it and you will have it.