Contending for the Faith in Prayer By Lee Shelnutt

Have you ever studied a passage of Scripture and for the first time something really stands out to you that you had not noticed well before? Our Men’s Fellowship group is studying the Epistle of Jude. It is a somewhat odd letter to our modern ears but it’s so powerful. As we have been studying it, we have first started at the sort of 30,000-foot level to try and get the big picture view before tackling the thorny issues found in the center of Jude’s letter.

As we worked together, we came up with something like the following as our summary of Jude’s major point:

God’s grace, mercy, and love shown to us in Jesus Christ, demands and enables us to contend for the faith against ungodliness in the church and to do so through faithful living.

Jude’s opening charge is found in verses 3 and 4:

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Here he gives us the charge – contend for the faith – and then he gives us the reason why. Ungodly people have crept into the church and are dangerous. Jude moves then in the middle of the letter to picture the sort of ungodliness that we are contending against in the middle of the epistle. After that, in verses 20-23, he gives his concluding charge showing us something ofhow to contend for the faith:

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 bysnatching them out of the fire; to others show mercywith fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

In Jude 3 & 4 we are told why we should contend for the faith. In verses 20-23, we are shown how we are to contend for it. And one of the things that stood out to me in these verses is the call to prayer. 

beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit…

I do not know about you, but when I think of “contending for the faith” I think of apologetic debates and tackling tough, contemporary, issues with sound teaching, catechizing, etc. No doubt, that is part of it. But interestingly, I do not typically think so much about prayer and that praying together might be one of the chief means to contend for the faith.

Prayer as a spiritual discipline? Yes, certainly. Prayeras the heart’s cry to God? Yes, yes, yes! Prayer as contending for the faith? Contending against the Evil One? Yes. Contending for the faith? Not before this time through Jude. According to Jude, it is. 

When we pray what are we doing? We are admitting our inability to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints in our own strength. We are acknowledging and turning to the One Who enables us to contend and to persevere. Then when we are praying thus together, we are encouraging one another to do the same. And, if we have our children with us in such holy prayer meetings, we are modeling what prayerful, contending, faithfulness looks like to the next generation.

Prayer is vital for faithful living and such prayerful, faithful, living is contending for the faith. We may know this intellectually, but does this knowledge work into our actions and affections? And does it do so in our public gatherings for prayer? Are we having such public gatherings for prayer, for contending?

Listen to some convicting words of a few brothers in Christ:

We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results. – R.A. Torrey

We shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians. – Spurgeon

Man is at his greatest and highest when upon his kneesand he comes face to face with God. – D. Martin Lloyd-Jones

With much prayer there is much blessing; with little prayer there is little blessing. – Dr. Douglas Kelly

Why pray? We pray because we are called to do so by God. We pray because we know that we need to pray. And, we pray because prayer is a blessed contending for the faith and contend we must!

You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan. – John Bunyan

Amen?