Kept Secure in His Power
Your Nightly Prayer
by Robert Hampshire
TONIGHT’S SCRIPTURE
“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.” - Jude 24
SOMETHING TO PONDER
If you have lived the Christian life for any length of time, you know one thing for certain: we all stumble! The band from a few years ago, DC Talk, even asked in one of their most popular songs, "What if I stumble, what if I fall, what if I lose my step and I make fools of us all?" In one way or another, we have all asked this question. Because of our fallen, sinful nature, none of us is able to walk out our faith perfectly. If we could, God wouldn't have gifted us with the Holy Spirit. So what then are we being promised here in this benediction in Jude 24?
Upon reading the context, you discover that right before this, Jude reminded Christians that, despite the people around us who may be against God and who follow their own "ungodly passions" that cause divisions, we have an extraordinary ability to build up our faith and "keep" ourselves. But this ability to keep ourselves comes only from the Holy Spirit within us, working on our hearts, convicting us of sin, teaching us the truth, and leading us to God. In the same way that physical fitness requires physical life before you can work out your body, spiritual "fitness" requires spiritual life before you can work out your soul. There is nothing spiritual that can be achieved without the Holy Spirit first enabling us to do it.
And as Jude shows us, it is God and God alone who is able to keep us from stumbling. The point is that as long as we are in lock-step with God, we cannot fail. Of course, when we step out of life (which we will), we will stumble. That is where the second half of this benediction is so important: God will present us with "blameless before the presence of his glory" (just like he did for the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 6). That is what God is doing and will do for us - and he does it with "great joy."
YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER
Heavenly Father,
I confess my inability to walk this Christian life on my own power. Even though you have made the power of the Holy Spirit accessible to me and have made a way to keep me from stumbling, I still stumble. But thank you for being so merciful to forgive me to pick me back up, and to one day present me to yourself as "blameless" in your sight as your prized possession. To you I give my praise because you alone are "glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever."
In Jesus's name,
Amen.
THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON
- Think back to times in your life that you should have stumbled, but God kept you. Praise him for his sustaining power.
- Consider how God is working in your life right now. Ask him if there are any steps you need to take to get back on the path he has laid out for you.
- Imagine standing before God one day in eternity, only to be seen as blameless and made perfect instead of sinful and broken.
Reflect on tonight’s prayer and share how God met you there. Join the Your Nightly Prayer discussion on the Crosswalk Forum.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Adene Sanchez
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