Prayer Verse

Our prayer verse for this week is from Jude 20-21:

But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray 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.

These verses start with a contrast, "but", so we need to see the prior verses 17-19

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

As I look at these verses I realize I have to back up even further to see the intent of this letter in verses 3-4:

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

I think that I can see now that the beginning of our prayer verse of "build yourselves up in your most holy faith" is contrasted with being deceived by ways proposed by those who follow mere natural instincts and change the grace of God into a license for immorality.