Daily Scripture Reading: Jude 1:1 KJV
Jude 1:1 KJV
(1) Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
Today’s Devotional Is KEPT FOR JESUS CHRIST
The WORD keeps ringing like a refrain through this letter. It is a metaphor for a power that originates in the Divine Will and works through the Holy Spirit’s energy. There is a gracious and divine movement behind our will and work, our choosing, and electing. It is the reason we are being “kept in Christ’s service.” Our spirit is being held for His Spirit to use it; His mind is being kept to energize it; His heart is being kept so that His love may flow in and through it; His imagination and fancy are being kept so that He can use them as Bunyan and Rutherford did; and our body is being preserved for Him to use its members. A vessel fit for the Master’s purposes! We must realize how Christ needs us all and how we will miss the purpose for which our being sent into this world was created.
Don’t rely on the Divine power of keeping you safe, as it is possible to neutralize it. Be a Christian, and live in the love of God. Are you looking for the light? Follow the gleam! Are you in the middle-current? Don’t get swept away into a back-eddy! Are you being used of God? Do not let your body become a burden and do not allow it to be resented after you have preached to others.
There is one who can keep us from falling, and that is not just from within by providing a garrison but also from outside by sendingries that keep watch and ward. We are more than suns and worlds, we are bigger than time and space, our abilities are beyond the realm of possibility, just as the child is larger than the royal palace. This is because the Lord has needed us. We are “kept for Jesus Christ.” Let us not forget that we are grateful for this prayer that has been recited throughout history: “I pray not that Thou shouldst take the world out of my hands, but that Thou shouldst protect them from evil.”
PRAYER for Today
Heavenly Father, we are grateful that You have called us to the fellowship of Thy Son. We are saved by Thy power through faith. AMEN.