The Keeping Power of God

1 Peter 1:3-5 (New King James Version)
³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance ^[a]incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵ who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

There is a well-known minister of the gospel who has a gift for taking often overlooked phrases in Scripture and enlightening them to the body of Christ. She uses natural analogies applied to spiritual truths to bring about the simplicity of the Gospel.

She recently did a teaching on the “keeping power of God” based on I Peter 1:5. She took that portion of scripture, “kept by the power of God,” a somewhat lofty phrase, and turned it into a phrase, the “keeping power of God” which most of us can easily relate to. We know about “keeping power” in our lives. It means to hold onto something is a way that it is not stolen or does not get lost. We keep a valued piece of jewelry in safe-keeping place, perhaps in a safe. We keep valued documents in a safety deposit box. The “keeping power” of these hiding places is the fact that they are impenetrable.

God, likewise, has taken what is valuable to Him (that would be us) and is sustaining us by His “keeping power.” The question arises, “Where does God keep us?” The answer is found in Colossians 3:3 (NJKV): “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” In Christ is the perfect hiding place. He places us in the one place where the devil has no access to – in Christ. Secondly, He places us in a place where He can see nothing bad in us – He only sees Jesus. Thirdly, it is a place that allows God to bless us in the way that Jesus is BLESSED – with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3); giving us “all things that pertain to life and Godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). This is all possible because we are being kept – hidden in Christ.  The beauty of the keeping power of God is that we do not qualify for any of God’s BLESSINGS. In fact, our qualification is found in our being unqualified. It is GRACE and GRACE alone that qualifies us to be included in God’s keeping power. It has nothing to with what we do, but what Jesus did. Like the safe or the safety deposit box, being hidden in Christ is impenetrable.

In focusing our attention on the “keeping power of God” we have freedom to relax and experience the abundant life Jesus died to give us. Think about it… most of us don’t give a second thought about the valuables we keep hidden in a safe or safety deposit box. We are confident of their “keeping” power. How much more is the keeping power of God a constant in our lives when we receive it as a provision in our Covenant? The challenge for us is to receive this truth into our spirits so that when a contradiction to that Covenant promise comes along, we rest knowing that being hidden in Christ is the safest place to be!

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