Does God protect me from harm? Should I pray to ask Him to do so? Does He promise to protect me? Can I expect it? These questions have been a personal debate and dispute for much of my faith journey.
How often we pray for protection! How often we think God doesn’t do a good enough job of protection and so we take control of our lives and the lives of our loved ones. We put rules and barriers in place to protect from harm, both physically and emotionally. We cry out, “God protect them!” longing for the absence or removal of any kind of trouble, harm and attack from our lives.
Is it correct to have a picture of being wrapped by God in some kind of spiritual bubble wrap that hedges us from all the misfortune of a fallen world? Or should I expect to have my own special armoured body-guard angel walking in front of me welding his sword, to fend off all trouble? Think about it! Really think about it! Imagine it! With every possible scenario that potentially comes our way, it would be an impossible task to do so! The only way would be for a Divine Being to remove all trouble but that is not our world right here and now – at least not yet. When harm does befall us, we are quick to doubt God and hear that nagging never-ending whisper of accusation, You can’t really be trusted. And, we are equally quick to blame Him for being cruel to have allowed something to happen that He could’ve or should’ve protected us from. Then come the questions, Why would a loving God not step in and stop it? Are You really good? Why didn’t You protect me from this? We can find ourselves buying into the blessing-curses belief that we must’ve done something wrong and so God removed His protection from us, followed by getting caught up in trying to be good enough to obtain back the favour of His protection.
The heresies of my past say, “have nothing to do with” 2 Timothy 3:2-5, or, “come out and be separate” 2 Corinthians 6:17. Though these are indeed verses to be found in scripture, what they were, were beliefs formed to protect and control, providing a false sense of security (and perhaps where my confusion stems from). These beliefs claimed that if I got myself and my loved ones inside hedges of do’s and don’ts, with the perspective of only associating with those inside and keeping all others outside, we would be safe. But stuff still happened, even within these religious, seemingly well-protected walls.
Is God out there moving this obstacle and that, fending off all potential harmers? I don’t believe so. Heck, sometimes He seems to even invite us to follow Him into places of trouble, like when Jesus said, “let’s cross over to the other side of the lake” Matthew 8:18,23-27, and the disciples followed but found themselves in a storm the likes of which they had never faced before. But did they experience protection here? The storm did calm at Jesus’ command, just like ours do in time, but what was it they learned – that God protects? I’m not so sure.
We say to God, “but You promised to protect us!” Did He?
The Psalmist of 91 seemed to believe so –
“The Lord will keep you safe from secret traps and deadly diseases. He will spread his wings over you and keep you secure. His faithfulness is like a shield or a city wall. You won’t need to worry about dangers at night or arrows during the day. And you won’t fear diseases that strike in the dark
What exactly did this Psalmist believe? Was this the cry of the heart or was it theology about who God is and what He does and doesn’t do? Was this the promise of protection to a nation under the covenant of cursings and blessings? Is it the promise to me today? How come I find myself in danger or trouble so often? In the Bible, I see suffering, and persecution, and extreme poverty and trials – terrible circumstances faced by believers. Circumstances that test them to the very limits, even to death. So what was the Psalmist thinking? I know God can protect, and many stories attest to this, but can it be expected of Him in our lives?
There is something else I see as a common thread. It is a promise of God – the promise of His presence, His Present-Love. This weaves through both New and Old Testaments where we are told that nothing can separate us from the love of God Romans 8:35,38-39, Isaiah 43:2. Does it claim we won’t be harmed or kept from trouble, or does it promise that when all of this is going on around us, the Almighty God of the Universe, the Lover of our Souls, is there alongside?
There seems to be both protection-promises and presence-promises. Protection suggests that harm is removed. To be preserved from injury or harm. To guard or defend. Presence suggests close or with. It suggests a relationship. That this One is alongside me in all that I face. It suggests the ability to get through, a strength beyond my own self, the development of character that is priceless gained only through hard times, it promises peace that passes understanding. It seems that sometimes (and not often enough in our view) we are bodily and/or emotionally protected from harm, but we always, always have the presence of God with us.
We live in a fallen world – full of potential to ruin and harm us, and for trouble to come our way. I hear people pray, “protect them from harm, protect my loved ones”, and I want that too, oh how I want it. I don’t want harm to come on my children. I don’t want trouble for myself. But I know that God has not taken us out of this harm-filled, evil world, and so I find I cannot pray this prayer with any confidence that God will answer it. But I have prayed this. In days past I have pleaded, God “please protect my loved ones, please protect me” (fear-filled prayers, perhaps from a lack of understanding of how safe we really are). And then I have sought to control their worlds and mine in an attempt to help God out! Sometimes and often though, the circumstances are way beyond control, and though I may claim protection-promises, I end up often disillusioned and disappointed with God.
Julian of Norwich, an anchorite of 700 years ago (someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, monk-like focused life), seemed to wrestle with these same thoughts. Perhaps on the same journey to understand, separated by hundreds of years, she said this, “If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love” (Revelations of Divine Love). I love that. Love – the precious love that Julian talks of – is there in our falling and rising. Though I cannot understand why God doesn’t use His divine wand to take away harm or to at least protect me from it, I love the thought that He is there alongside. I love that He has walked with my children, with my loved ones, with my girlfriends through the darkest times when protection would’ve been desirable and the lack of is not understood, but where God was faithfully present. (“You need to know I am still wrestling with this though, God!”)
A few years ago, I walked a sacred journey with a dear girlfriend. Abuse, divorce, and fear in her childhood had kept her broken, confused, and disillusioned. The pain within was crippling and destructive. In a personal revelation of supernatural love, God showed her that He had been alongside in those moments of her painful past. He revealed His heart to her: grieving, deeply distressed by the events which had ruined much of her emotional childhood. We may ask why didn’t He stop it if He were there present? I don’t know. I don’t know. But I do know that I witnessed in her a deep healing as He revealed His physical presence there. She saw Him there beside her. There was much she didn’t understand. There were many whys in her life. There were cruelty and destruction and brokenness and trouble and pain experienced in her young years, but the knowledge of His p
Is it fair or reasonable to suggest that it is possible that presence, is more powerful than protection? With more potential to heal? A future glory perspective? A greater ability for greater things? – you know, like character, patience, trust, peace, faith – all those things that are treasures to God, but are pain-inflictors that we cry out to be protected from. Fear even, is dispersed in the presence of Perfect Love…1 John 4:18 There is so much fear in our lives…
Sometimes I wonder in my musings if I am just making excuses for God, because the reality is, I want the protection. I don’t really have the powerful, potential, future perspective, perfect love view of my world, as God does. Have I found suitable reasoning for something that I don’t understand just to satiate my confusion? In reality, I find I don’t have enough clarity to answer or satisfy this question. I am glad for the presence of God, I don’t want the harm, and long for the protection I know He is able to give. But I do have this to offer – harm, pain, the past, the cruelty, the poverty, the brokenness, the destruction does not defeat us. We are more than conquerors. Not just conquerors. More than! More means greater than, extra, a larger amount. The presence of God is with us, it conquers, trumps, is victor over, it heals, it defeats all those things we seek protection from in this world, (or those things we have had no protection from) according to Romans 8:37. Even when we are still broken within, still resisting and blaming God, He is at work conquering those things that have come at us Philippians 1:6. The presence of God is greater than the trouble we face, so is it that maybe…just maybe…I should seek presence over protection? Should my prayers ask for His presence to be felt deeply, rather than for protection?
“Oh God, if I am honest, my first reaction is always going to be to ask for protection. Perhaps that’s human. But in the midst of the wrestle and ongoing confusion that presence versus protection produces, I ask You that I may experience Your presence, to sense it greatly in whatever circumstance I face. To see it evident in the things I have faced in my broken past – if indeed it is more powerful, having more potential – than to have my desire for protection answered. I long for the things You long for and see as good, and if presence is better, then help me to see that. Presence has been promised always, protection has not, and “He who promises is faithful” Psalm 145:13“.