Text:
Jude 8-15
Memory Verse:
“Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority
and speak evil of dignitaries” (Jude 8).
Jude describes as “religious windbags” people who claim they are full of the Spirit, but really, are only full of “hot air”. Beware of the man who piously boasts about his own achievements and holiness. The mark of true holiness is a deep consciousness of our shortcomings and unworthiness. The nearer we draw to the Light, the more the defects in our own life will be revealed. God said concerning the patriarch Job that “there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and shuns evil” (Job 1:8). Yet when Job stood before the holiness of God he declared, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5). Are you discouraged about your own lack
of spirituality and the slow progress in your Christian life? Remember, this may be a very healthy sign of your growth in grace. There is nothing so displeasing to God as a self-satisfied and complacent person.
A Pharisee boasting of his own goodness said, “I thank you O, God, that I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11). His bragging was a stench to God. But the poor publican who, beating his chest cried, “God be merciful to me a sinner” was accepted. When a person is filled with the Spirit – he will be humble, but when he is filled with the “wind” he will be proud and “blow” about his own deeds. Are you filled with the Spirit or wind?
Prayer Points:
1. Lord fill me with Your Spirit
2. Father, I will not be filled with the wind.
