12 Weeks of Prayer Week 2 Day 7
THE PATHS OF PROTECTION
By Pastor Michael Heil
TOH The Unapologetic Theologian
“The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
The Lord will guard your going out
and your coming in from this time forth and forever.”
Psalms 121:7-8
These two scriptures, Psalms 121:7-8, are part of the passage expressing God’s faithfulness to protect Israel. With the Word of God, it is proper and right to read it first in the context it was given. This is the universal “logos” or general meaning God intends. Still, as with all of God’s Word, God will reveal His “Rhema” or specific principles and applications. What I see in these two verses is that the protection God affords to Israel is a spiritual truth of His protection to all His children. I believe it is correct to say Father God guards us and keeps us from destruction. That is especially important to realize in these times we are walking through that Satan is bringing persecution through our governmental leaders, social networks, universities, and even businesses. We can see the hand of Satan by the persecution going across these different groups. In what ways can we expect God to protect us in the coming months and even years?
The first way God protects us is by keeping our path of life straight. Psalms 27:11 shares, “Teach me Your way, O LORD, And lead me in a level path Because of my foes.” We all walk different paths in life; some may be in construction, some may be in sales, others may be housewives; there are many different paths that we walk in life. In your path or in my path, the evil one will try to bring events and circumstances to harm us or even destroy us if he could. Currently the “cancel culture” where we live, there are people who live next door who are being moved to look for offense. One of the ways that Satan will push them to be offended is by extremist, right-wing, Christians. We could spend all day looking over our shoulder for these offenses to come, and we could worry and be distrustful towards every person we see. However, we need to recognize that our God goes before us to straighten our paths. I passionately believe, day in and day out, moment in and moment out, the Lord is keeping us from the traps of the devil such as you or me ending up in a store a few minutes after a leftist activist leaves or that we will be driving and go through an intersection five minutes before an accident happens. Through little ways and little coincidences, God prepares our path, and we never see it happening; God’s protection rests on us.
There is another way that God protects us which is known to us. He brings light each day to where we should walk and in how we should walk so we are protected from people and circumstances that Satan would use to harm us. Proverbs 4:18 says, “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” The first thing that we note in this portion of Scripture is that we receive light from God. Receiving light means God brings to our mind thoughts or scriptures which give direction in how we should move in the situation before us. This revelation or light from God comes quickly and easily. We don’t need to stress or strain or cry out for God’s will; God promised His light will come to us. You have seen this happen in your life, possibly when you are visiting with a friend, and during the conversation, a certain thought that you hadn’t been aware of comes to mind. As you share that thought with your friend, it brings peace and rest to your friend who was troubled. That is God bringing light to your path to bless another. Or maybe you have a decision to make that is before you, and as you meditate on what to do, God brings a specific direction or step to take which you instantly recognize as perfect for the situation. You and I can expect this to happen in our lives, not because we are wonderful saints in our everyday behavior (that would be law), but rather because we are saints with the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us.
The other thing you and I see in this verse is the light to our path shines brighter and brighter. What does that mean? I believe it means God gives us the light we need, the revelation in our mind, for the next step that He wants us to take. Again, too many of the saints live too far out in their life. It is not wrong to make some plans about our lives as long as those plans do not become set to such an extent that we miss the next step God wants us to take. God tells us in Proverbs 4:18 that the light to our path will increase, “become brighter and brighter,” as we walk faithful to the step God has put before us to take. Think of it this way, when you drive a car at night heading towards New York, the headlights do not show you the path all the way to New York. That would be silly. However, the headlights will give you revelation or light for the next 300 feet down the road. However, a strange thing happens as you travel that 300 feet, all the sudden your car’s headlights show you the next 300 feet. That is what God means when He says the path will become brighter and brighter. As we faithfully follow God’s path of light, we find He moves us away from obstacles, barriers, and the plans Satan tries to bring against us. Do you believe this? As you and I believe and act upon faith, it is a reality. So, let us rest in the truth that God’s got it covered! Selah.
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