He Who Is Able To Keep You From Stumbling
CONSECRATED No. 76 - 1 Thought. 2 Quotes. 3 Verses.
1 THOUGHT
I was on a call the other day with a group of leaders from across the Western Church. One of them referenced the “reckoning” that has come in recent days. The exposing of leaders who have been walking in hidden sin. The collapse of ministries built on pride and arrogance.
As news of fallen leader after fallen leader has crashed into the headlines, I’ve felt myself fighting off numbness and cynicism.
I’ve felt hyper aware of the roots of pride and arrogance trying to grow down into my own mind and heart. Fear makes it feel as if the choice we’ve been given is either 1) have significant impact with the inevitable consequence of pride or 2) underachieve with the safety of a cheapened version of humility.
As I’ve watched person after person I’ve looked up to fall, I’ve fought with the question, “Can God use a person greatly without them becoming arrogant?” At times to me it’s seemed impossible.
The narratives of Scripture don’t seem to give much hope either with the majority of biblical leaders failing to finish well.
A few weeks ago I was walking and pouring out these thoughts and feelings to the Lord. Pouring out the temptation for fear and discouragement as I wondered, “Is our generation of leaders simply doomed to the same fate?”
And as I prayed, it was as if the words of Scripture boomed into my spirit. The words of Jude’s benediction at the end of his short but potent epistle:
“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
The Holy Spirit’s presence seemed to rest so strongly upon those words, “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling.” It is Him—it is Christ alone who has the power to keep us from stumbling.
Our faith does not rest in our human willpower to obey Christ, in our human discipline towards humility, or in our human desire for a pure heart. Rather, it must rest wholeheartedly on the mighty shoulders of the perfect, faultless, un-fallen Christ who alone has the power to keep us from stumbling—and who is committed to doing just that.
The only Man who never stumbled alone has the power to keep us from stumbling.
It is Christ who will keep us from stumbling. It is Christ who is interceding on our behalf at the right hand of the Father. It is Christ who, just as he did for Peter, is asking the Father that our “faith would not fail” (Luke 22:32)
So take heart today. Your ability to make it to the end of your race in faithfulness—with a heart that is still pure and tender—does not rest on your willpower or discipline alone. But it rests on Christ who has prayed for you and who has the power to keep you from stumbling.
2 QUOTES
“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”
- Robert Murray M’Cheyne
“All God's giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.”
- Hudson Taylor
3 VERSES
“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
Jude 24-25
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.”
Luke 22:31-32
For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”
Hebrews 13:5
A RESOURCE
Perseverance by Dr. Jon Thompson is a great resource in this very subject of remaining faithful to the end.
