His Mercy Brings Me to Eternal Life!

Jude 21 "Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life."

      Lord,  This verse really spoke to me today.
First of all " Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait", tells me that it is up to me, but it is not optional.  Now obviously, in other passages of scripture You tell me that the Father and You "Keep" me.  I believe here Jude, because of the context, is warning me no to be drawn away from Your love by false teachers.

Secondly, and especially, the phrase: "as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life." came to life for me this morning.  We normally do not look at the death of a loved one as Your mercy unless they have been fighting Cancer or some other horrible disease or old age and then You take them home and heal them perfectly.  But we rarely see it as Your mercy when  saved folks are taken from the earth in their youth or as babies.  What about the young teens that are killed by a drunk driver, or the young dad that dies of an unexplained heart attack, or the relatively newly married husband that is killed in a military training exercise, or the baby that dies in the womb or shortly after, or the child who is killed in their own driveway by a run away car, or a baby or families attending a church service that are swept away and killed by a killer tornado?

We tend to think about all of the things they would not get to do...like graduate from High School or College, have a fulfilling job, get married, have children and grandchildren.
What we fail to see, Lord, is what their future might have been like.  We have no clue how much grief, rejection, illness, financial woes, war, anxiety, and worry they would have had to suffer if you had not IN YOUR MERCY brought them to eternal life.

I will never forget the true story I read about a mom whose three year old little girl was deathly sick.  She prayed and prayed begging God to heal her little girl.  He did heal her and mom was so very thankful.  Unfortunately, as she grew, she was very rebellious and rejected her mom's faith.  At are 13, she ran away from home, got involved in drugs and prostitution, and died a horrible death without You at age 17.

Lord, when I try to tell you what to do, I am always going to suffer for it.  Do You tell me to bring my requests to You? Absolutely!  It is HOW I ask and what I ask for that is the issue.  Do I ask for Your best for the ones I love and for Your perfect will to be done in their lives and leave the details to YOU, or do I tell You what I expect You to do for me/them?

Dearest Lord,  If even YOU prayed "Not my will but yours be done", how much more should this imperfect sinner simply saved by grace?