Word Study Wednesday – God’s Protection, Why Pray?

Welcome to the 3rd Word Study Wednesday. Today’s Bible study will be on God’s Protection, which is a difficult topic to talk about. We hear stories of how God protected one person, but yet bad things happen to someone else. God did not protect all the children when the tornadoes ravaged through Oklahoma nor did he protect everyone at Sandy Hook. Because of disasters like this, many find it difficult to believe that prayer actually works. They even wonder how there could be a God when there is suffering in this world. I have addressed some of these issues in my post called “Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen?”. I once heard a pastor who had fled a country due to persecution. He had suffered great persecution, which involved torture and other things that I won’t elaborate on. He explained it best in my opinion, “Each person is allotted a certain amount of time on this earth. If you are in the perfect will of God, you are invincible until He is ready to call you home”. According to the Bible, God determined how many days you would live.  “Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began” Psalms 139:16 (HCSB). We cannot add any hours to our life, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Matthew 6:27 (NIV). So that being said, why would we pray for protection? If God has already determined how long we would live, then why pray?

Prayer can add to the quality of life that you live on this earth. The Bible has many stories of how God protected people. Peter was released from prison by an angel as a result of the prayers of the church in Acts 12:5-19. In the book of Esther, the Jews were saved for death as a result of their prayer and fasting. God made the sun stand still in the book of Joshua so that Israel could fight a battle (Joshua 10:12-14). God held the mouth of the lions while Daniel was in the lion’s den (Daniel 6:10-23) and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were saved from the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:8-25). I encourage you to take a look at these stories. If God can deliver them, then He can deliver you. The Bible says that, “you do not have because you do not ask” James 4:2 (NKJV). So do not be afraid to ask or be too discouraged by your situation to ask. We also have to keep in mind that our lack of faith can affect the way God answers our prayers. “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” James 1:6-8 (NKJV).

Sometimes God will allow us to go through trials to teach us and strengthen us, but other times he will deliver us before the trial begins. For stories of God’s protection in modern times, please read the book Psalm 91 by Peggy Joyce Ruth. Perhaps the approach that I have taken with today’s Bible study was different than you had anticipated. You may have preferred that I give you 10 Prayers to Pray for Protection, which I may do later in the week, but I wanted to address this issue. We pray for God’s protection, but we must also to be willing to submit our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord if that is what He chooses. If we are a believer, then to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). Death is not the end, but the beginning of eternity with the Lord. Are you willing to surrender your life to the Lord? If so, please see my post “Need Salvation?”