“You… are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5).
Every child of God is guarded by God’s power, for the rescue that will take place prior to the Great Tribulation. The word “kept” is a military term that means “to keep under guard as with a garrison.” A garrison was a building, with high walls and fortifications, guarded by elite units of soldiers who could stand together in hand-to-hand combat to block every enemy attempting to enter.
You and I may not see the “garrison” or the “guards,” but we don’t have to. We have the security of God’s promise that it is so, and that we are guarded by His power until He returns.
When Satan prowled around Job, his complaint to God was… “Have you not made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has on every side?” (Job 1:10). How much more is this true of those who are in Christ.
In this vital truth we are to “greatly rejoice” even if our hearts are heavy through various trials. The trials will pass because we are “passing through” a world that is passing away – and we’re to live like we’re leaving.
A loose paraphrase of 1 Peter 1:13 would go something like this: “Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind (have the mindset of leaving), be sober (awake and alert), and hope (be cheerfully confident) to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
No matter how dark the world grows, we are guarded by God’s power, not our own, until Christ returns. May we rest in His power and love today.
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