The New Life – 19. Jesus the Keeper

“The Lord is your keeper; The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.” — Psalm 121:5,7 NKJV

“For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” — 2 Timothy 1:12 NKJV

For young disciples of Christ who are still weak, there is no lesson more necessary than this—that the Lord has not only received them, but that He will also keep them.

(Genesis 28:15)
(Deuteronomy 7:9; 32:10)
(Psalm 27:8; 89:33–34)
(Romans 11:29)

The lovely name “The Lord your Keeper” must for this purpose be carried in the heart until the assurance of an Almighty keeping becomes as strong with us as it was with Paul, when he spoke that glorious word: “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.”

Come and learn this lesson from Paul. Learn from him to deposit your pledge with Jesus. Paul had surrendered himself, body and soul, to the Lord Jesus: that was his pledge which he had deposited with the Lord.

You also have surrendered yourself to the Lord, but perhaps not with the clear understanding that it is in order to be kept every day. Do this now—daily. Deposit your soul with Jesus as a precious pledge that He will keep secure. Do the same thing with every part of your life.

Is there something that you cannot rightly control? Is it perhaps...

... your heart, because it is too worldly? (Psalm 31:6; Jeremiah 31:33)
... your tongue, because it is too idle? (Psalm 51:15; 141:3)
... your temper, because it is too passionate? (Psalm 119:165; Jeremiah 26:3–4; John 14:27; Philippians 4:6–7; 2 Thessalonians 3:16)
... your calling to confess the Lord, because you are too weak? (Isaiah 50:7; Jeremiah 1:9; Matthew 10:19–20; Luke 21:15)

Learn, then, to deposit it as a pledge for keeping with Jesus, that He may fulfill in you the promise of God concerning it. You often pray and strive in vain against a sin—it is because, although this is done with God’s help, you would still be the one who overcomes. No!—entrust the matter wholly to Jesus:

“The battle is not yours, but God’s.” (Exodus 14:14; Deuteronomy 3:22; 20:4; 2 Chronicles 20:15)

Leave it in His hands; believe in Him to do it for you:

“All things are possible to him who believes.” (Mark 9:23)

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1 John 5:4)

But you must first place it wholly out of your hands and into His. Learn from Paul to set your confidence only on the power of Jesus: “I am persuaded that He is able to keep my pledge.”

You have an almighty Jesus to keep you. Faith keeps itself occupied only with His omnipotence. (Genesis 17:1; 18:14; Jeremiah 32:17,27; Matthew 8:27; 28:18; Luke 1:37,49; 18:27; Romans 4:21; Hebrews 11:18)

Let your faith especially be strengthened in what God is able to do for you. (Romans 4:21; 14:4; 2 Corinthians 9:8; 2 Timothy 1:12)

Expect with certainty from Him that He will do for you great and glorious things, entirely above your own strength. See in the Holy Scriptures how constantly the power of God was the ground of the trust of His people. Take these words and hide them in your heart. Let the power of Jesus fill your soul. Ask only: “What is my Jesus able to do?” What you really trust Him with, He is able to keep. (John 13:1; 1 Corinthians 1:8–9)

And learn also from Paul where he obtained the assurance that this power would keep his pledge: it was in his knowledge of Jesus.

“I know whom I have believed.” (John 10:14,28; Galatians 2:20; 2 Timothy 4:18; 1 John 2:13–14)

You can trust the power of Jesus if you know that He is yours—if you hold fellowship with Him as your Friend. Then you can say: “I know whom I have believed; I know that He holds me dear; I know and am persuaded that He is able to keep my pledge.”

So runs the way to the full assurance of faith: deposit your pledge with Jesus; give yourself wholly—give everything—into His hands; think much on His might and rely on Him; and live with Him so that you may always know who He is in whom you have believed.

Young disciples of Christ, receive this word: “The Lord is your keeper.” For every weakness, every temptation, learn to deposit your soul with Him as a pledge. You can depend on it; you can rejoice over it:

“The Lord shall preserve you from all evil.” (Joshua 1:9; Psalm 23:4; Romans 8:35–39)

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, I take You as my Keeper. Let Your name, “The Lord your Keeper,” sound as a song in my heart the whole day. Teach me in every need to deposit my case as a pledge with You, and to be assured that You are able to keep it. Amen.

Notes

1. There was once a woman who for years long, and with much prayer, had striven against her temper, but could not obtain the victory. On a certain day she resolved not to come out of her room until by earnest prayer she had the power to overcome. She went out in the belief that she should succeed. Scarcely had she been in the household when something gave her offense and caused her to be angry. She was deeply ashamed, burst into tears, and hastened back to her room.

A daughter, who understood the way of faith better than she, went to her and said, “Mother, I have observed your conflict; may I tell you what I think the hindrance is?” “Yes, my child.” “Mother, you struggle against temper and pray that the Lord may help you to overcome. This is wrong. The Lord must do it alone. You must give temper wholly into His hands; then He takes it wholly, and He keeps you.”

The mother could not at first understand this, but later it was made plain to her. And she enjoyed the blessedness of the life in which Jesus keeps us, and we by faith have the victory. Do you understand this?

2. “The Lord must help me to overcome sin”—the expression is altogether outside of the New Testament. The grace of God in the soul does not become a help to us; He will do everything: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

3. When you surrender anything to the Lord for keeping, take heed to two things: that you give it wholly into His hands, and that you leave it there. Let Him have it wholly: He will carry out your case gloriously.