Bad Intentions

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Jude 1:20-21 NIV

Normally I use the verse that is given to me for the day, but I was curious what came before "But you dear friends." What had the apostle been talking about that he was comparing his readers to. It turns out he was talking about people using scripture for their own corrupted purposes and to be wary of them. He also mentioned to be careful of those who flatter you for their own selfish reasons. In order to not fall under their spell, we must keep ourselves in prayer and read the scriptures. 

That's hard. We all want to be liked. The human state craves companionship. We were made that way by God to be his companions. As such we search out the bond our brains need. Some of those bonds can be deadly, those that are not for our good but are meant to use us for anothers' gain.

We have all experienced it. I just mentioned it in a previous post. It happens far more than I would like. It causes me to halt and back step a little from a relationship, no matter how casual, and put a professional distance up, not letting that person see or know anymore about me than necessary to get the job done. God has already given me the deep loving relationships I need in this world, plus I have the promise of an eternal relationship with him.

So I will pray with you that we may discern others' intentions and ask God to guard our faith for eternity with him.