Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen (Jude 24, 25).
We all stumble in life.
We make mistakes. We sin. We give in to temptations and the desires of the flesh.
We don't like it when we do.
And we will do and try about anything to keep it from happening again.
But it does.
And when it does, the guilt and shame and fear says to us to try harder and do better.
That is a sharp contrast to the encouragement of the Word.
Listen to these words from Jude.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory (Jude 1:24, 25).
Trying harder sounds like the wise approach. Paul acknowledged that in his letter to the Colossians:
"These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh" (Colossians 2:23).
In other words, rules like "do not handle, do not taste, do not touch" do not work.
We don't have the discipline, the strength or willpower to say "no" to sin in and of ourselves.
But we have Jesus. He is able to keep us from stumbling. The best way forward is through faith in him, the one who loves you and gave himself for you.
The world throws all types of temptations at you on a daily basis. The desires of the flesh tug at you from within. You know these aren't for you as a child of God. There is only one person who can keep you from stumbling, and his name is Jesus.
Today, thank him that he is living in you and trust him to keep you standing.
In Him,
Bob Christopher