<p>1:20 <i>But you, beloved, build up yourselves in your most holy faith</i>- The antidote to all the awful behaviour listed so far is to be built up in the Spirit. The Lord builds us up, edifying us by His Spirit; but we need to respond by doing our part in being open to His work within us. The ideas of holiness and &quot;the faith&quot; recall the opening of the letter; the believers were being made holy by the Spirit, and were to defend the faith. Spiritual growth was on the basis of the basic Gospel they believed, &quot;the faith&quot;.</p><p><i>Praying in the Holy Spirit</i>- We receive the gift of the Spirit in our hearts at baptism, but we are to allow this Spirit to teach us and take over our thinking and action. The Spirit in view is the Spirit or mind of the Lord Jesus; it is His psychological&nbsp;entrance into us. This explains the encouragement to pray in or by the Spirit (Rom. 8:26; Eph. 6:18). The contrast is with those who did not have the Spirit (:19).</p><p>Who we are as persons is effectively our prayer and plea to God. This conception of prayer explains why often weeping, crying, waiting, meditating etc. are spoken of as &quot;prayer&quot; , although there was no specific verbalizing of requests (Ps. 5:1,2; 6:8; 18:1,2,3,6; 40:1; 42:8; 64:1 Heb.; 65:1,2; 66:17-20; Zech. 8:22). The association between prayer and weeping is especially common: 1 Sam. 1:10; Ps. 39:12; 55:1,2; Jn. 11:41,42; Heb. 5:7, especially in the Lord's life and the Messianic Psalms. &quot;The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer&quot; (Ps. 6:8,9) crystallizes the point. <i>Desire</i> is also seen as effectively praying for something (Rom. 10:1; Col. 1:9; 2 Cor. 9:14). Weeping, desiring, waiting, meditating etc. are all acts of the mind, or 'spirit' in Biblical terminology. There is therefore a big association between our spirit or state of mind, and prayer. The spirit (disposition) of Christ which we have received leads us to <i>pray</i> &quot;Abba, Father&quot; (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). &quot;Praying in the holy spirit&quot; (Jude 20) is to be seen in this context. Prayer is part of the <i>atmosphere</i> of spiritual life, not something hived off and separate- it is an expression of our spirit. Thus there are verses which speak of many daily prayers as being just one prayer (Ps. 86:3,6; 88:1,2); prayer is a way / spirit of life, not something specific which occurs for a matter of minutes each day. The commands to &quot;pray without ceasing&quot; simply can't be literally obeyed (1 Thess. 5:17). &quot;Watch and pray <i>always</i>&quot; in the last days likewise connects prayer with <i>watchfulness</i>, which is an attitude of mind rather than something done on specific occasions. This is not to say that prayer <i>in no sense</i> refers to formal, specific prayer. Evidently it does, but it is only a verbal crystallization of our general spirit of life.</p>