"To Him who is able to keep you from falling 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." Jude 24
This is one of my favorite scriptures. Each time I hear a minister give this
benediction, it sends chills up my spine.
I am not sure if it is because the verse is so full of promise, or if it
is because it expresses my deepest praise.
And what a wonderful way to end the year of 2012 -- with a benediction. This year has been full of lessons and challenges, but God has proven to be faithful. His promises are everlasting and we are reminded in this scripture.
The promise is rich.
As His children, He will present us before Him faultless, blameless,
without spot. This is reassuring in a
world where we always feel at fault for something. Whether it is an argument, a broken
relationship, a project gone awry or a lost dream. Somehow, we take the weight of the world and
put them on our shoulders. We also hold
on to the guilt and shame of our past sins.
Often we struggle to see ourselves as a new creature in Christ. But our
Father promises that He will present us before Him without fault and with GREAT
joy!
The praise is precious.
There are so many names we can attribute to the Almighty. There are so many ways we can honor Him. Yet these words capture a multitude of
feelings and awe. In this one verse, we
declare him to be the only God, who is our Savior - the one who rescues us and
takes us in from the storm. He is
attributed as full, overflowing with glory, majesty, power and authority. And finally we are reminded that He was not
just a God of Abraham, of Moses or the Israelites who performed wonderful
miracles. But He is the SAME God, now
and forevermore.
This scripture offers us an unending source of hope. It gives us hope that, as Christians our
ending will be better than our beginning.
Whatever is happening now sister and brothers in Christ, THIS will not be how
our story ends. But we will see our
Father in all His glory, in all His splendor.
Just ponder on that for a moment.
Our past will not matter, our sins will be obsolete. We will be blameless before Him. Now... let's march into 2013 with that promise and that praise.
Selah...
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