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October 29

Kept For Jesus Christ

Judas, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. — Jude 1:1

The word keep rings like a refrain throughout this letter. It suggests a power which originates in the Divine will and operates through the Holy Spirit’s energy within us. Behind our willing and working, our choosing and electing; behind all the influences that are brought to bear upon us, there is a gracious and Divine movement, in virtue of which we are being “kept for Jesus Christ.” Our spirit is being kept for His Spirit to tenant it; our soul is being kept that His mind may energize it; our heart is being kept as the bowl of a fountain that His love may flow in and out; our imagination and fancy are being kept, that He may utilize them as He did Bunyan and Rutherford; our body is being kept that He may have the use of its members—a vessel meet for the Master’s use! Let us realize how much Christ needs each one of us, and how much we shall miss if we neutralize the very purpose for which we were born and sent into the world.

Do not presume on the Divine keeping power, for there is always the dread possibility of neutralizing it. Keep yourselves therefore in the love of God! Have you the light? Follow the gleam! Are you in mid-current? Do not get turned off into a back eddy! Are you being used by God? Keep under your body and bring it into subjection, lest after having preached to others you may yourself be rejected.

There is One who is able to keep us from stumbling, not only from within, by a garrison, but from without, by sentries which keep watch and ward. We are greater than worlds or suns, greater than time or space, greater than the universe in which we are found, as the child is greater than the royal palace, because the Lord hath need of us. We are “‘kept for Jesus Christ”; let us not be unmindful or ungrateful, for, throughout the ages, this prayer never ceases to rise from the heart of our Redeemer: “I pray, not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil.”


Prayer

We thank Thee, Heavenly Father, that Thou hast called us into the fellowship of Thy Son. Keep us by Thy mighty power through faith unto Thy salvation and service. Amen.


Our Daily Walk - October 29

Public domain content taken from Our Daily Walk by F.B. Meyer.


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