‘They Have Kept Your Word’

’They Have Kept Your Word’

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:  thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

John 17:6

Christ understands His people.  Because He does, He knows how much we need Him.  As Christ continues to pray His High Priestly Prayer, He refers to the faithfulness of His disciples.  He says, ‘they have kept Your word.’  Left to themselves the disciples were a feeble, frail and failing lot.  Within a few hours from when Christ uttered these words, Peter, one of His most ardent followers, would deny Him three times.  How could Christ say, ‘they have kept Your word?’  We find the key to this in John 17:12, ‘While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name:  those that thou gavest me I have kept….’ It was Christ Who ‘kept’ them.  This in no way diminishes their use of means, their obedience, their faithfulness, or their love for Christ.  It was Christ who enabled them to think and act as they did.  It is even so with us.  God has given us His Word, both written and Living.  He has given us the means of grace, of which we should make full use.  We cannot derive the benefits of these means, or successfully adhere to all that they prescribe, apart from Christ keeping us.  As much as we make use of the means and follow the precepts which the Scripture sets before us, Christ must uphold us, or we will certainly fall.   We have kept His word because He is keeping us.

Our Gracious Sovereign God,
we rejoice at the abundant Grace which You
have manifested toward us in the Person of Christ.
We praise You that He has kept us thus far,
and shall preserve us unto His Heavenly Kingdom.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning