God Is Able: Fixing Your Eyes on Jesus in Jude 24

Every minute something new demands your attention, and the world can feel confusing and heavy. Where should you look when life pulls you in every direction? Jude ends his short letter with the answer: look to the One who is able. God is able to keep you from stumbling, to do more than you can ask, to provide for you, and to deliver you.

What does "God is able" mean in Jude 24?

It means your hope rests on God's power. Jude spends most of his letter warning believers about false voices, deception, and spiritual pressure. Then he closes with praise.

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.

Jude 24

The next verse gives that God all glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all ages, now and forevermore.

A doxology is a closing word of praise like this one. Jude doesn't say the culture is able, or the kingdoms, or your teachers. He says God is able. Pastor Marty Sloan summed it up: "Yes, life is tough. God is good. Yes, life is confusing. God is not."

How do you keep going when life gets hard?

You live with eternity in view. Jude says to keep yourselves in God's love "as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life" (Jude 21). You were built for something beyond this life.

Many of us treat this life as big and eternity as small. The truth runs the other way. Jesus is everything, heaven is everything, and our hope in Him is everything. When you remember where you're going, today's stress loses some of its weight. Eternal reward outweighs earthly reward. For more on this, Pastor Marty recommends Driven by Eternity by John Bevere and Your Eternal Reward by Erwin Lutzer.

What does it mean to fix your eyes on Jesus?

It means you make Jesus the steady point you look at when everything else keeps moving.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Hebrews 12:2 to 3

Endurance is the strength to keep running toward a finish line you can't see yet. Jesus has already crossed that line. Find Him, focus on Him, and you'll finish well. The cross wasn't joyful, but the outcome was. Jesus endured because of what was on the other side.

Pastor Marty's counsel for weariness was direct: "When you lose heart, check your focus." No news network or political party is your source. Jesus is the author and finisher of your faith, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Can you trust God with more than your salvation?

Yes, and that's the real test. Most Christians say they trust God for eternal life. Pastor Marty pressed further. Do you trust Him to heal your broken heart? To deal with your enemies so you can forgive? With your time, your talents, and your finances? With loving people who are different from you?

We tend to give God the eternal category and keep the rest for ourselves. But if you can trust God with your eternity, you can trust Him with everything else.

So what is God able to do? Scripture gives a clear list.

• He is able to keep you from stumbling. Everyone stumbles, and even a good man falls and gets back up. You make it by His preserving grace, not by your power, performance, or perfection.
• He is able to do more than you can ask or imagine. Ephesians 3:20 says He does immeasurably more. God doesn't work in the realm of barely enough.
• He is able to supply and sustain you. Second Corinthians 9:8 says God is able to bless you abundantly, so you can abound in every good work. He supplies so you can sow more, not store more. He fed Israel from the sky one day at a time. Trusting God as your provider includes following His plan for your finances.
• He is able to deliver you. Even when the furnace is hot, He is still God.

For example, Pastor Marty told about one of his sons in first or second grade. A teacher noticed his shirt pocket bulging after lunch and found it stuffed with tater tots, saved for recess in case he got hungry. We laugh, but many of us live that way with God, hoarding because we aren't sure He will provide tomorrow.

What if God doesn't come through the way I hoped?

You keep trusting Him anyway. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced King Nebuchadnezzar's furnace and answered him with faith.

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty's hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.

Daniel 3:17 to 18

Pastor Marty called that line fire in his bones. "Faith is not just believing God can, but obeying even if he doesn't." Many people stand strong on social media but cower in front of a real furnace. Don't bow. Trust the plan of God.

Common questions

What does Jude 24 mean?

Jude 24 praises God as the One who is able to keep believers from stumbling and present them before His presence without fault and with great joy. It closes a letter full of warnings with the assurance that God keeps us.

What does it mean to fix your eyes on Jesus?

Hebrews 12:2 calls Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Fixing your eyes on Him means making Him your steady focus, so the shifting news and pressures of life don't wear you down or make you lose heart.

What is the meaning of "even if he does not" in Daniel 3?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego told the king that God was able to save them from the furnace, but even if He didn't, they would not bow to an idol. It shows faith that keeps obeying God whatever the outcome.

Does God keep Christians from stumbling?

God is able to keep you, and following His Word lowers your risk of falling. Everyone still stumbles at times, and God is gracious to those who get back up and keep following Him.