Audio Transcript
We begin this new week off with a troublesome e mail. There’s no nice strategy to introduce the subject apart from to learn the story that got here in from a listener, a girl named Belinda. “Good day, Pastor John,” she writes. “I discover myself in a spot of confusion about life. And my query is whether or not there’s some extent to praying for God’s safety over our lives — for instance, safety from accidents when happening a automobile journey, safety from a illness or from criminals or from being injured in athletics — after we know that this earthly life is stuffed with struggling and hardships.
“I’ve been studying that God isn’t within the enterprise of intervening in each occasion in our lives. I used to consider that my household and I have been typically properly protected by God. I’d sing over my younger youngsters at night time the benediction — ‘The Lord bless you and hold you . . .’ — and life was fairly good. When my nearly five-year-old daughter died by drowning in our swimming pool a number of years again, I ended singing that tune. And since then, I really feel insincere praying for the Lord’s safety. It didn’t assist my religion after we have been robbed of our valuables at gunpoint three years in the past both.
“I do nonetheless really pray quite a few instances for God to maintain my household protected and wholesome, however I don’t know if there’s a level to those prayers. He didn’t shield my daughter from drowning. He didn’t shield us from criminals. My aged dad and mom have been burglarized and scammed, and I’ve no assure that my household and I might be spared trials sooner or later. What, why, how ought to I be praying relating to the subject of safety when it feels so completely pointless?”
Properly, let’s begin with these three questions. What ought to I be praying relating to safety? Why ought to I be praying for defense? How ought to I be praying for defense? All three of those are, she says very explicitly, underneath the emotional shadow of this assertion: “What, why, how . . . when it feels so completely pointless?”
I’m going to return again to that assertion of feeling pointless on the finish as a result of that’s a shadow that’s shaping all the things. However she did ask what and why and the way, and I’m going to take them one after the other.
What Safety Ought to We Pray For?
What ought to we be praying relating to the subject of safety? We must be praying that God would shield us from any check of our religion that might exceed the grace he guarantees to offer for the endurance of it and the flexibility to develop by it and glorify him in it. And I say that due to the promise in 1 Corinthians 10:13. And I’m going to translate this by changing the phrase temptation with check as a result of they’re precisely the identical phrase in Greek, and I believe it has this broader sense.
No check has overtaken you that’s not frequent to man. God is devoted, and he is not going to allow you to be examined past your capability. However with the check he may even present the way in which of escape, that you just could possibly endure it.
For instance, when Paul requested for defense and deliverance from his thorn within the flesh, which precipitated him ache, the Lord refused to guard him from it or take the thorn away. He had one other type of safety in thoughts — not bodily safety, however one other variety. He mentioned, “My grace, Paul, is enough for you on this check. My energy is made excellent in your weak spot.” And Paul responds amazingly, splendidly, gloriously: “I’ll boast all of the extra gladly of my weaknesses, so the ability of Christ might relaxation upon me.” That’s 2 Corinthians 12:9.
What we pray is, “Don’t let something occur to me that might exceed the sufficiency of your grace to assist me endure it, develop in my religion by it, and glorify your grace in it.” If God removes his safety in any space of our lives, which he usually does, these are the needs: to assist us endure, to extend our reliance on him in loss, and to glorify the sufficiency of his grace to hold us via — even with pleasure — within the loss.
So, if I have been with Belinda, I’d ask her — I’d ask you, Belinda, as tenderly as attainable, “While you say, ‘It didn’t assist my religion after we have been robbed of our valuables at gunpoint three years in the past,’ why is that? As a result of that was God’s objective in it.” Hebrews 10:34 says, “You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, because you knew that you just yourselves had a greater possession and an abiding one.” Paul mentioned that he was crushed to the purpose of despairing of life, and that was God’s objective. It was God’s objective to make him rely not on himself however on God (2 Corinthians 1:9). That was the design of the crushing.
“God is your Father. He’s sovereign. He’s good. It’s by no means pointless to ask him for what you want.”
And so, I’d ask you, “Do you have got a biblical view of struggling? Do you embrace the entire Bible as the way in which it guides you and teaches you tips on how to deal with the crushing experiences when God lovingly — sure, lovingly — removes his safety?” So, what we pray for is that God would shield us from all the things that might undermine our religion or his glory in our lives. And that assumes that we now have a biblical understanding of his sovereignty in our struggling.
Why Ought to We Pray for Safety?
Second query: Why ought to we pray for defense?
1. As a result of he tells us to. “Pray then like this: . . . Lead us not into temptation, however ship us from evil” (Matthew 6:9, 13). In different phrases, “Shield us from soul-destroying evil.”
2. As a result of the biblical saints prayed for defense. “Ship me from my enemies, O my God; shield me from those that stand up towards me” (Psalm 59:1). Paul requested the Romans to hope for his safety in Jerusalem in order that he may make it to Rome after which Spain (Romans 15:30–32).
3. As a result of there may be safety we is not going to have if we don’t ask for it. “You haven’t since you requested not” (see James 4:2).
4. As a result of God intends for us to work with him by prayer to result in his functions in our lives. Prayer is a valuable reward, and God makes use of it to perform his functions in additional methods than we are able to think about.
5. As a result of God is our Father. We pray for defense as a result of God is our Father, and he loves to provide good issues to his youngsters who ask him (Matthew 7:11).
How Ought to We Pray for Safety?
Third query: How we could pray for defense? Properly, I’ll inform you how Noël and I’ve finished it. We’ve got prayed on this home the place we dwell now — and earlier than that, in fact, however we’ve been right here for 41 years. We’ve got prayed for defense on this nook on this neighborhood with rising and falling urgency as we now have felt threatened. And we at all times really feel threatened. Devil exists, proper? We pray for 4 s’s — the letter s — to assist us bear in mind. “Lord, shield us from sin and from Devil and from illness and from sabotage.” We pray them in that order, beginning with probably the most critical.
We consider sin — our sin, not different folks’s sin — is our best enemy. That’s the one factor that may rattling us, proper? No person else can. Nothing else can. Unforgiven sin. Sin in God’s face. “Shield us from damning sin.” After which come satanic assaults. After which comes illness. After which comes sabotage — any person breaking into our home or setting the home on hearth. The best hazard in life is that we sin towards God, that we mistrust God. And so we begin there.
Are My Prayers Pointless?
So, these are my solutions to the three questions: What and why and the way ought to I pray for defense? However Belinda’s root problem, it appears to me, is the shadow underneath which these questions have fallen for her. “What, why, how pray for defense,” she says, “when it feels so completely pointless?” And the important thing phrase there may be feels. Belinda’s emotions have been deeply formed by the tragic lack of her little one. Who can think about? The housebreaking, her dad and mom’ trials — these profound disappointments, these jarring experiences, these fears are making prayer for defense really feel pointless.
Now, as with nearly all the things I say on Ask Pastor John, in a way it’s presumptuous of me from my distance to look into your coronary heart, Belinda, and know what’s there. I can’t. If I have been there, if I have been your pastor and I knew you higher, I’d communicate in a different way. However I hope you’re surrounded by smart, loving, Bible-saturated pals in a wholesome church. It makes an enormous distinction for recovering from these crushing issues.
However because you requested — and you probably did; you wrote and requested me, so what can I do? — right here’s what I’d say about your emotions that prayer for defense is pointless. Right here’s what I say: These emotions are primarily based on a falsehood. They’re what the Bible calls misleading emotions. It’s not true. It’s not true that your prayers for defense prior to now or the current or the long run are pointless. It’s not true. And you want to put fact over towards your emotions and reshape them.
You talked about 4 actually vital heartbreaks, heartaches in your life the place you didn’t get the safety you hoped for, and all of us have skilled that type of non-protection. However I need to remind you that for each a type of, there have been a thousand — sure, that is no exaggeration — a thousand acts of God to guard you from sin, from Devil, from illness, from sabotage. God has protected you in 1000’s upon 1000’s of the way.
No, you may by no means show this. Skeptics will at all times say, “Properly, proper — it wouldn’t have occurred anyway. So whenever you say you pray for it to not occur, it’s pointless to hope as a result of it won’t have occurred anyway.” Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. However it’s not pointless. It’s completely not pointless. God is our Father. He bids us pray for his safety. And after we do, there are millions of solutions that we are able to know now by religion and know sometime by sight.
You don’t pray for defense in useless, Belinda. You don’t. It’s not pointless. God has smart and good and righteous causes for why some thorns aren’t taken away and a few youngsters die. However the actual fact that you’re alive and that you’ve written to us means God has protected you in 1000’s of the way to carry you to the place you’re. He’s your Father. He’s sovereign. He’s good. It’s by no means pointless to ask him for what you want.
