He Keeps Us, And He Keeps Us "Kept"

 "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" (Jude 1)

For the longest time, I thought that it was up to me to stay in God. If I thought wrong, if I felt wrong, if I did or said something wrong, I was outside of God's loving embrace, feeling, good will, etc.

For the longest time, I believed that I had to hold onto God. It was dependent on me in some way to ensure that I never got nervous, angry, fearful or anything else. This was the life that I was leading.

Two days ago, I was meditating on a verse from Jude:

"Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." (Jude 21)

When I read this verse in the past, I often believed that there was this great strain, this great pressure on myself to keep myself in the love of God. The previous verse talks about praying in the Holy Spirit, so I would deduce that it is essential for me to keep praying in the Spirit in order to stay in the love of God.

Then God had me look up the original Greek word for "Keep" in verse 21:

téreó: to watch over, to guard

Original Word: τηρέω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: téreó
Phonetic Spelling: (tay-reh'-o)
Definition: to watch over, to guard
Usage: I keep, guard, observe, watch over.

HELPS Word-studies

5083 tēréō (from tēros, "a guard") – properly, maintain (preserve); (figuratively) spiritually guard (watch), keep intact.

This word appears elsewhere in Jude's Epistle, too.

Check it out in verse one!

"]P]reserved in Jesus Christ."

We are already kept in Him. God is already keeping us!

And no one is going to take us out of His hands!

"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." (John 10:28)

So, this notion of "keep yourselves in the love of God" speaks to respecting and remaining in your identity as "kept" in Christ!

It's not as though we suddenly fall out of God's love if we are not praying in the Spirit. It's a matter of maintaining and remaining in our new identity in Christ.

Paul writes to the Ephesians:

"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1:6)

We already are accepted in Christ Jesus, but God the Father does not settle with calling His Son by name, but referring to Jesus as "The Beloved". Wow! We are in the Beloved, and God sees us as Beloved. Amen to that!

We do not have to strain to keep ourselves, lest we fall out or fall away in some fashion. He is already keeping us, and He has promised to keep us "kept". 

In His Love! In the Beloved!

"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1:6)

Last week, I was talking to a friend of mine. I said that I felt like Kanye West. His sense of new freedom has been something else to watch. He talks a lot about love, too. God's love is freedom, isn't it!

This sense of freedom had grown, has become increasingly overwhelming for me in the last week. I could not ignore it. I began to realize how much God loved me. Daddy God loves me, because of what His Only Begotten Son had done for me, and what His Son continues to do for me!

This love is just so much for me, I can hardly take it in, and there's still so much to take in!

"The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." (Jeremiah 31:3)

This verse comes from the Old Testament, under the sacrifices of bulls and goats. Notice that the "Lord has appeared" here.

But John writes something far more intimate:

"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1:17)

This is a love that has been in place since the beginning:

"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:" (Ephesians 1:4)

God had His eye's on us from the outset. Before time began, He loved us!

Folks, we need to understand this! This matters so much. I submit to all of you who read this, that understanding, receiving a deeper revelation of how much God loves you is maturity in Christ. To be a real, grownup Christian, you need to know how much God loves you! It's not about how much you love Him, because we can only give what we have received.

"6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1:6)

We are accepted in Christ Jesus, yes indeed. More importantly, however, we are accepted in "The Beloved."

What does it mean to be in Christ? So much, and that includes to be "In Love". God is in love with us, and we are in His Love!