Prayers for Protection

It is not uncommon when Julie and I pray that we pray for God’s protection.  We often pray that God would put a “hedge” of protection around our family.  This comes from Job 1:10 where Satan comments to God that He has put a “hedge around him [Job] and his household and everything he has?  You [God] have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.”  If Satan so easily recognized God’s protection and admits openly that he has no authority or ability to interfere into the life that God protects, then we are fools not to ask God to put a “hedge” around our family.  I don’t believe there is anything special about saying the word hedge, except as a reference to God and God alone providing a barrier that keeps evil from us.  I prefer to imagine that this barrier is God’s unseen hand.  (I’ve also always like the song, The Unseen Hand.)

But You, Lord, are a shield around me,
    my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
I call out to the Lord,
    and He answers me from His holy mountain. – Psalms 3:3-4

I can only imagine that Satan knew God’s protective hand was upon Job because he had run into it many times until he would no longer look at Job, but at whether God’s protection was upon him or not.  This brings me to the second prayer request we often make regarding God’s protection.  We ask that God would stand over our home and family so that evil would not even approach us.  That evil would not even see us, but would see God standing over us and so, turn away. 

No one will be able to stand against you.  The Lord your God, as He promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go. – Deuteronomy 11:25

One of our last calls in prayer for protection is for God to strengthen our faith.  I do not know if God, who exercises complete restraint regarding our free will, allows Himself to strengthen a person’s faith.  I tend to think He does not, but let’s every person determine to believe to the extent they are willing to surrender their heart and will.  But that doesn’t deter us from praying that God would so order our days, challenges, and victories into baby steps so that we would be more subject to a faith that is ever strengthening and growing.  We want our belief to be stronger, more determined, and unwavering every day. 

This last element is absolutely crucial to being positioned in the safe arms of God and being under His wings.  There is no safer place to be than to be securely nestled in the complete and absolute trust of God.  We must have such a faith that we know that there is no place we can be, no evil that exists, no circumstance that can be presented, no other power, and certainly no person alive or dead who can at any time for any reason affect God’s intentional plans and blessings for us.  There is no safer place than to be secure in our faith knowing that God’s plan for us and all His Words for us are what is best for us and they always will be. 

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39