I love the focus on God keeping (or preserving) us in all facets of our lives. This corrects two common misconceptions that seem to me to be pervasive in modern American Christianity.
The first is that our salvation is only about getting to heaven. “God does not want to keep us in this general way, so that at the last, somehow or the other, we shall…just get into heaven.” A great many of those who will hear Jesus say: “I never knew you” are those that have been told their walking the aisle or saying the “sinner’s prayer” has reserved their spot in heaven. We need to realize that “the keeping power and the love of God applies to every particular part of our being.”
This brings us to the second misconception: that our salvation is strictly spiritual. It is absolutely possible to over-spiritualize our salvation. God saves the whole person. And He preserves the whole person.
As Murray says, this is done by God’s power, but through faith. This is where surrender comes in. We cannot preserve ourselves, only God can. “When God comes to me with the promise of His keeping, and I have nothing on earth to trust in, I say to God: ‘Thy word is enough…'” “Do not try to stir and arouse faith from within…look into the face of Christ, and listen to what He tells you about how He will keep you.”
