Be Encouraged: You Are Kept

August 2

Before he was betrayed and driven to the cross, Jesus spent time praying for you.

“I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.”

 “Holy Father, keep them in your name…”

“While I was with them, I kept them in your name…”

“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:9, 11-12, 15).

If you are in Christ Jesus, you are his. And Jude says God keeps those he calls.

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ (Jude 1).

Jude goes on to warn us about the ungodly— those people who creep in unnoticed and twist God’s grace. He compares them to Sodom, Gomorrah, and rebellious angels, whom God “has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgement of the great day” (Jude 6).

God has the power to keep angels in chains.

And God has the power to keep you from falling into eternal punishment.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory… (Jude 24-25a).

So be encouraged, Christian. Jesus has prayed for you, and God has answered, and no power in heaven or hell can keep you from being kept in him.

No power of hell, no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand;

Till He returns or calls me home,

Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

– “In Christ Alone” by Keith Getty, Stuart Townend