day 657: Keeping

"While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost"

In business we all at some point or another are "kept" by someone else or by the organization. It we weren't then each of would likely be flushed out from one company to another much faster than normal. Of course, yes we are all capable, but at some point or another we get "kept" and for that we should count ourselves fortunate. What this means is that someone is watching out for us and when we slip up we got the second chance or we got a pass for something that we did that was either wrong or just silly. I'm not talking about something that is wrong in the sense of being immoral or illegal, I'm talking about those times that because of inexperience, poor judgment, or just the wrong decision that we just make a mistake. And then, because someone is keeping us, we get talked to but we don't lose our jobs and we don't have our careers derailed. Some companies are better at this than others. Those cultures that are dog-eat-dog or up-or-out are not so good at this, but others are really great at keeping us propped up even though we stumble and fall. I can't judge cultures but I can say that one or the other only happens because of the people in the organization who make the decisions based on their personal philosophies. It is good for us to check and understand what a culture is like and not like before we join up. Or once we are in them then we need to understand and adjust to that culture and how we can best succeed. It is not easy, but it can be done and we can adapt and learn to understand how to operate in a company successfully.

David Wilkerson, before he died, wrote about how God keeps His disciples. He wrote, "Peter said, '[We] are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time' (1 Peter 1:5). I see in this a prophecy
that in these last days, God is once more going to reveal his keeping power to
his people. Christ prayed to the Father concerning his disciples: 'While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and
none of them is lost' (John 17:12). The disciples did not keep themselves in
the will of God, they were kept by a mighty power outside of themselves. They
could not have made it a single day without Christ's keeping power.
What a glorious prayer Christ prayed on our behalf: 'I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from
the evil' (John 17:15)."

What a great promise and assurance we have in that God is "keeping" us and keeping us close and within His protection. Regardless of what you face today, know that you are being "kept".

Reference: John 17:12 and 15, 1 Peter 1:5