Everyday Prayers for PeaceÀpẹrẹ

Filled to Overflowing

The letter of Jude is a short call to action for believers in Christ. It’s so short that it often gets overlooked entirely. The entire book is a little over six hundred words and takes up one page in my Bible, but it’s packed with useful, important information for the believer. The first verse says we are “kept” or “preserved” for Jesus. To preserve something means to safeguard, look after, protect, or maintain.

One of the most common arguments we have in our home occurs when our two teenage boys can’t find the equipment they need for a baseball tournament. My husband has tried to help our boys learn to keep everything in the same place, so they’ll always know where it is. We even set aside time on Friday nights, before a Saturday tournament, to gather all the necessary items and lay them out on the kitchen table. And yet, almost every very early Saturday morning, we’re missing something. There’s nothing worse than getting up before dawn on a Saturday and running around like crazy people, looking for a missing cup, instead of sleeping in.

We try hard to teach our children to keep, maintain, and take care of the things they need and care about—even if those things can usually be found in a dark corner or under their bed—but our efforts fall short most weekends.

Not so with God. Jude tells us that not only are we set apart for God’s purposes, called by the gospel to trust in Jesus for salvation and loved by the Father, but we are also kept by God for His own glory.

The knowledge that God can and will do this in spite of my own inability and weakness fills me with hope and comfort. Because we are God’s children—called, beloved, and kept—we are the recipients of His mercy, peace, and love, not just once at the point of salvation but always. We can count on being kept and receiving mercy, peace, and love because God can be counted on to glorify Himself.

Father, thank You for keeping me. Left to myself, I know I would never be able to stay. There’s too much sin still in my heart, and it’s prone to wander from You. The knowledge that You will preserve me, that You will guard me and keep me from stumbling brings me peace.