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Kept by God to Keep to God

Today I read: 2 Chronicles 9, Psalm 119:25-48, Zephaniah 1, and Jude

Gospel summary: God, in his infinite wisdom, made a way for guilty and sinful rebels to his authority to be justified and made righteous before him on the basis of Another who kept God's commands perfectly, and to have hearts whose primary longing is obedience to his commands for the glory of his name. These people not only love keeping to God's ways and long to please him, but God keeps them in his ways by his sovereign power.

Prayer: Father in heaven, you alone are holy and worthy of all glory. Thank you for satisfying your own righteous requirements on my behalf through Christ in his life and death, and stamping it upon my heart by the Holy Spirit. Now, all thanks to your grace, I long for a life that brings you glory and pleases you. Help me to live this day not for myself but you, and remind me that you are working all this in me when I do. Spare me from the demise of those who turn away from your commands to eternal destruction and continually fill me with your Spirit to seek your glory alone. Thank you for keeping me when I so often sin and as I keep myself, spare me from the prideful thought that it was all me. Thank you for the wise plan of salvation through Christ. In Jesus' all-wise name I pray, amen.

Key verses: "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ...keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life...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 ‭1‬:‭1, 21, 24-25‬ ESV, bold italics mine)

Hymn: "Grace! 'Tis A Charming Sound" by Phillip Dodderidge

Stanzas:
Grace! 'tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to the ear;
Heav'n with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.

Refrain:
Saved by grace alone! this is all my plea:
Jesus died for sinful men, and Jesus died for me.

Grace first contrived a way
To save rebellious man;
And all the steps that grace display,
Which drew the wondrous plan.

Grace first inscribed my name
In God's eternal book;
'Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took.

Grace turned my wand'ring feet
To tread the heav'nly road;
And new supplies each hour I meet,
While pressing on to God.

Grace taught my soul to pray,
And made my eyes o'erflow;
'Tis grace has kept me to this day,
And will not let me go.

O let Thy grace inspire
My soul with strength divine!
May all my pow'rs to Thee aspire, 
And all my days be Thine.

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