Stay Worshipful
And so Jude says, stay humble, stay faithful, stay merciful, stay filled. And then lastly, Jude reminds his people to stay worshipful, and he does so by closing his letter with one of the great benedictions. Maybe you recognize it from the song, which, by the way, has been playing in the background today.
Let me read it from the King James Version, which is more familiar: “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.”
God's Power to Keep
What a closing! I think those are two of the greatest sentences ever written. God is able, Jude writes, able to keep you faultless, to keep you faithful, to keep you humble, to keep you joyful and merciful and filled. He is wise, the only wise God! He's glorious, He's majestic, He's powerful. Right now He is all this, and He always will be.
What words! That opens up doors for hours of praise. If he had to go through all that he said in that little passage.
Worship Inspires Action
The Christian life truly is a life of deep worship. When we worship, truly the rest falls into place.
I like what A.W. Tozer said. I think it is so profound. He said “The beautiful part of worship is that it prepares you and enables you to zero in on the important things that must be done for God.” He said “Practically every great deed done in the Church of Christ, all the way back to the Apostle Paul, was done by people blazing with worship. A survey of church history will prove that it was those who were the yearning worshippers who became the great workers. The great hospitals have grown out of hearts of worshipping people. Mental institutions grew out of the hearts of worshipping and compassionate men and women. Whenever the Church has risen from her sleep and into the tides of revival and spiritual renewal, always the worshippers were back of it.”
Living in Worship
That inspires me, I must say, to be a radiant worshipper of God! It's when our lives are deeply worshipful—when everything we do is an act of worship—that great things happen.
Stay worshipful, friends. Put worship as your high priority every day. Be so enraptured with God that you cannot imagine a day where you don't worship Him and praise Him from the heart.
And you know what? The rest will come. When you stay worshipful, you can only be humble, because you're always considering how great God is.
When you stay worshipful, you can only be faithful, because you know what you've been called to do.
When you stay worshipful, you can only be merciful, because you remember how merciful God has been to you.
When you stay worshipful, you can only stay filled with the Holy Spirit, because God dwells on the praises of His people.
And so let your heart ring out with praise to the only wise God, our Saviour, now and always!
