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Psalm91:1 Whoever goes to the Lord for safety, whoever remains under the protection of the Almighty, 2 can say to him, “You are my defender and protector. You are my God; in you I trust.” 3 He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers and from all deadly diseases. 4 He will cover you with his wings; you will be safe in his care; his faithfulness will protect and defend you. 5 You need not fear any dangers at night or sudden attacks during the day 6 or the plagues that strike in the dark or the evils that kill in daylight. 7 A thousand may fall dead beside you, ten thousand all around you, but you will not be harmed. 8 You will look and see how the wicked are punished. 9 You have made the Lord your defender, the Most High your protector, 10 and so no disaster will strike you, no violence will come near your home. 11 God will put his angels in charge of you to protect you wherever you go. 12 They will hold you up with their hands to keep you from hurting your feet on the stones. 13 You will trample down lions and snakes, fierce lions and poisonous snakes. 14 God says, “I will save those who love me and will protect those who acknowledge me as Lord. 15 When they call to me, I will answer them; when they are in trouble, I will be with them. I will rescue them and honor them. 16 I will reward them with long life; I will save them.” (GNT).
Know, especially if you pray for it, you can receive protection from God. God gives us protection and healing. His protection and healing may or may not come in supernatural form. We can also thank God for modern medicine and science, as He will often use people and innovations to bring about the healing He desired for someone.
We can’t be assured of protection though because like any prayer, we say,”God’s will be done.” I don’t know about you, but I like the fact that prayer doesn’t always get answered. If every prayer someone said was answered, it’d make the ending of Bruce Almighty look tame. Reality itself would be a twisted mess if every prayer was answered with a “yes”, and God would be the perceived equivalent of a personal genie. Thankfully we know He isn’t, and He is unchanging, so we can be certain that He will only say yes to the prayers that align with His will. Furthermore, often we know based on experience, that He says “no” to us for a superior “yes” later on. If all prayers were given the green light, we can be confident the world itself wouldn’t last for long. It would only be a matter of time before someone requested something along the lines of, “We keep fighting over land, could we please just not have any land to fight over?”, or another such irrational request. There’s more than a trillion ways one could pray reality to become incomprehensible, so I am glad God does say “no” to those kinds of prayers. We should be as thankful for God’s “yes” as His “no” because He is omniscient (all-knowing).
In terms of safety, I believe God does often answer “yes”, and provides for us. There are times when God may choose to protect us in the midst of what may otherwise appear a chaotic or dangerous set of circumstances. There are yet other times where He rids us of the situation itself. In both cases we submit to the sovereignty of God, and He chooses what is best for us in consideration of eternity. We may not understand why He doesn’t always remove the threats from our vicinity, but as long as He does with the perfect reasoning we know He has, we should be able to appreciate that moving forward.
Luke 13: 1 At that time some people were there who told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices to God. 2 Jesus answered them, “Because those Galileans were killed in that way, do you think it proves that they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No indeed! And I tell you that if you do not turn from your sins, you will all die as they did. 4 What about those eighteen people in Siloam who were killed when the tower fell on them? Do you suppose this proves that they were worse than all the other people living in Jerusalem? 5 No indeed! And I tell you that if you do not turn from your sins, you will all die as they did.” (GNT).
If we’re lost in our sins, we risk being involved in life-threatening danger. Yet, it seems that someone who is seemingly good can also experience tragedy. We ask,”Why did a bad thing happen to a good person?” There are some theologically correct answers to this, but normally when people are suffering, they don’t want to hear cold, dry theology. Emphasize comforting those who are suffering over theological elaboration. We need to be considerate, and exercise our God given discretion. The Holy Spirit will help guide us in what we should say or withhold at such a time.
We know bad things can happen to seemingly good people, and we should know that prayer works effectively, particularly when we intercede for the protection or provision of fellow believers. Again, it doesn’t always happen, God has the final say because more important things could be at work than one person’s health. We cannot allow Him saying “no” to us in this regard to hinder our faith. We should trust no matter what challenges we face that it is part of God’s perfect plan. You don’t have to look any further to Jesus dying on the cross as something that appears unfair, but ultimately is better for all the rest of us.
Without the saving Grace of Jesus, we’d end up in hell. Thank God for His rich grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Fortunately for us, with the atonement of our sins paid for through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we’re able to instead receive the free gift of eternal life. [Read: Ephesians 2:8-9]. Remember that it’s a free gift, but that doesn’t mean it was cheap. It was the greatest price ever paid.
With God, we have a promise that God is going to hold us close and help us. If we cease doing evil, and strive to be good and loving in all we do, we befriend God. He has many blessings in store for us. In the short run as a believer whether we experience health, protection, and happiness or not; we know for certain that God will bless us with all we need to persevere. Even if we have it rough, we may never know what it’s like to die because he’ll raise us to life. By no means should we try to accelerate the day when we’ll die, but instead we should strive to live selflessly for others by loving them and becoming servants of all. [Read: Matthew 23:11]. We should aim to be as healthy as possible. This will assist us in helping more people, and maximize our time here on earth for God’s glory. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, so they should be respected as such.
Can I promise you that if you’ll walk with God, nothing will ever physically harm you again? No, this would be misleading. Some Prosperity Gospel teachers might tell you this to fleece you of your money, but I won’t. Not everyone’s life becomes easier once they have God, some people’s lives become exponentially more difficult as they serve the LORD. The people who suffer for the Good News are ultimately rewarded with more blessings in the coming Kingdom. God is very fair, but the evening up of the scales might not be until the next life. So in this life, if we have more than we need, we should definitely be helping others. Rest assured that these circumstances are in God’s hands so that you don’t worry. [Read: Matthew 6:25-34]. God is more than capable of protecting you and your family. Even when you don’t get an audible answer from the Lord, or have a specific vision on how the future will pan out, remember God often witholds information we’re not ready to see yet. He holds the entire map, but if we knew the entire map we might feel overwhelmed or daunted by what is to come. Better to trust God step by step, and continually remember we need to rely on Him daily.