Lesson 44: Kept by the Power of God, part 2

First, look at the divine side— KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD. Think, first of all, that this keeping is all-inclusive.
 
What is kept? You are kept. How much of you? The whole being. Does God keep one part of you and not another? No. Some people have an idea that this is a sort of vague, general keeping, and that God will keep them in such a way that when they die they will get to heaven. They do not apply that word kept to everything in their being and nature, yet that is what God wants.

Here I have a watch. Suppose that this watch had been borrowed from a friend, and he said to me:
"When you go to Europe I will let you take it with you, but remember, keep it safely and bring it back."

And suppose I injured the watch, and had the hands broken, and the face defaced, and some of the wheels and springs spoiled, and took it back in that condition, and handed it to my friend, he would say:
"Ah, but I gave you that watch on condition that you would keep it."
"Have I not kept it? There is the watch."
"But I did not want you to keep it in that general way, so that you should bring me back only the shell of the watch, or the remains. I expected you to keep every part of it."

God does not want to keep us in this general way so that at the last, somehow or other, we shall be saved as by fire, and just get into heaven. The keeping power and the love of God applies to every part of our being.


There are some people who think God will keep them in spiritual things, but not in temporal things. This latter, they say, lies outside of His line. Now, God sends you to work in the world, but He did not say, “I must now leave you to go and earn your own money, and to get your livelihood for yourself." He knows you are not able to keep yourself. God says, “My child, there is no work you are to do, and no business in which you are engaged, and not a cent which you are to spend, but I, your Father, will take that up into my keeping." God not only cares for the spiritual, but for the temporal also. The greater part of the life of many people must be spent, sometimes eight or nine or ten hours a day, amid the temptations and distractions of business; God will care for you there. The keeping of God includes all.

There are other people who think: "In time of trial God keeps me, but in times of prosperity I do not need His keeping; then I forget Him and let Him go." Others, again, think the very opposite. They think, “In time of prosperity, when things are smooth and quiet, I am able to cling to God; but when heavy trials come, somehow or other my will rebels, and God does not keep me then."