First Peter 1.5 holds a very special place in your life, Pastor John.

It's a precious text about God's keeping power over his children of those who by God's power are being guarded

through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

So precious, this is the promise that you wanted as a banner over the life of your mom, and so had a phrase from this text in the King James Version, etched into her grave, kept by the power of God.

Ruth Piper was kept by the power of God in this life until her tragic passing in an automobile

accident at the age of 56.

You were 28 at the time of the accident,

almost 50 years ago now.

In fact, it will be 50 years ago,

just in a couple months, actually on December 16th.

You told us all about that life altering phone call that you got back in

Apj 1577 and 1936. There's no need to go back into that story here. I mentioned 1st Peter 1.5 because that text also

adorns our Bible reading today as we start this new week. Melissa, a podcast listener, wants to

know more about what the verse means. Hello Pastor John, she writes,

what does Peter mean that we are guarded by God's power through faith?

How exactly does God guard us by his power but through faith? Is he guarding us through our own faith? I don't

understand how this works. Is his guarding of me thereby ultimately dependent on me in

my faith? This is a text that should give me great comfort and yet it doesn't. Not yet.

Well here's the passage of verses 4 and 5 from 1st Peter one so let's get it in front of us so that we know

what we're talking about. We have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading kept in heaven for you,

who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

And one of the wonderful things about this promise is that there is a double guarding or a double keeping.

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