Jun 27thDevotion Jude 1ba Called, Loved and Kept Part 1

John 15:16 – You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

1 Peter 2:21 – To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps.

2 Timothy 1:9 – He has saved us and called us to a holy life-not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace.

Philippians 3:14 – I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Family, we who understand that God has given to all mankind a free will, must know, and vitally so, that God is sovereign and His will is always exactly completed.  Many ask how man can have free will and still the will of God will still always be accomplished.  It seems infinitely more difficult than trying to herd a thousand feral cats.  But there is error in thinking that it impossible for us to have free will and for the will of God to always come to pass.  The error is ascribing human limitations upon God.  We know we have free will.  And we know that the will of God will always come to pass.  How does God accomplishes that?  Well, we don’t know, and for good reason.  He is God and we are not.  To say that something of God is not true because we don’t understand is tantamount to us rejecting that God is infinite, or that He is omnipresent, or omniscient, or a triune God.  Family, we know many things about God that we cannot fully understand.  We have free will and God is sovereign and because God is God and we are not, He understands and we do not.  That does not lessen our God, but magnifies Him.

We are believers not through our own will but by the will of God. See the above John 15:16 where Jesus directly says that He chose us and it was not the other way around.  We are called by God.  There is great rest in that.  See the above verses, it is clear that we are called by God.  Since it is God who called us, will He not keep us?  Since God calls us, don’t we know it is because He loved us and wants us with Him?  We see the evidence of that in the Garden of Eden.  And that is what He calls us to, only better.   We have the Holy Spirit with us.  So we have God within us.  The Holy Spirit, God Himself, who is a deposit of our inheritance.  The Holy Spirit who brings to us the tender, loving, kind and guiding nature of our God.  He called us.  Let us rest in that.  And so we know that God loves and keeps us.  And these two we will subsequently discuss, as God allows. In the meantime, let us rejoice in the calling of us by God to Himself.  Let us enjoy the undeserved love of God with all that qualities that are intrinsic to it.  Let us enjoy our God.  Let us be aware and conscious of the comforting will of God towards us.  And let us thank and praise God.  Always may we praise God!  With all that is within us let us praise the Lord!  Praise God!  We praise You our lovely God!  We praise You!

Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!

Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.

Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”