God’s Protection

 

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”. So says the 23^rd Psalm, and that is logical: shepherds learn to love their sheep and therefore want them to do well. In this photo my wife Audrey is the shepherd, she loves her sheep so is providing their needs as you can see.

The other side of this successful arrangement is that the sheep trust Audrey; thus, they don’t stay out in the paddock away from her, but come to her so she can see their needs and supply them. Likewise, if we ask the Lord to be our Shepherd, (as the Psalm implies), then we should come to Him, commune with Him, and tell Him our needs. Oh sure He knows them already, but if we ask for help then we are expressing our faith in Him and “Without faith” there will be no result, (see Matthew chapter 21, verses 21 and 22).

The 23^rd Psalm goes on “He makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my Soul, He leads me in the paths of righteousness, for His names sake, Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death; I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”  And I have tried to illustrate it in this picture.(that is you there walking with Jesus), Yes I know that I have shown you these pictures before, but sometimes repetition helps: I have repeated this Psalm to myself many thousands of times, and have been helped and refreshed by it on each occasion. Last week I wrote an article entitled “Demons and Witches” where I quoted the Apostle Paul telling the Ephesian Christians to “put on the whole armour of God” so they could stand against the Devil and “The sword of the Spirit” which is “the word of God” is our only weapon; all the rest is protective armour. The words I have quoted above are part of that “word of God” (the 23^rd Psalm) therefore, we need to memorise words like these so that when troubles appear we can quote them and Satan and His demons will have to leave us alone, just as when Jesus was tempted by Satan He quoted scripture and Satan left Him alone. As you know, police carry their baton, tazer or pistol (or the lot) with them at all times, just in case they find themselves in a dangerous situation; in that respect those weapons are like fire insurance or car insurance. The same applies to praying, memorising scripture and claiming promises as far as we are concerned. Doing that places a protective “screen” around us with Angels to guard us, For example I always start the day with prayer to God, then when I get in the car, before I drive off I quote Psalm 34 verse 7, by saying: “the Angel of the Lord encamps about them that fear Him, and delivereth them” thank you Lord I claim that promise’.

Does this work? My word it does, (if you ask in faith, believing that is). I had payed that prayer about 3 minutes before this car accident happened in 2013 when a large vehicle fitted with a bull bar hit my vehicle at high speed and my car was written off to the extent that the insurance company paid the price of a new car into my bank account within 3 days, which softened the blow a bit. The police came, and the ambulance came but they had to wait until the V.R.A. arrived to break open the driver’s side door so they could get me out. The Paramedic was amazed that I appeared to be in one piece but took me to hospital in the ambulance to be sure; where they X-rayed me and let me walk out in about a ½ hour.

 Someone said “my word you was lucky that you had your car insured”. No I wasn’t lucky; it was just the sensible thing to do. Someone else said “My word you was lucky to escape unhurt from an accident like that”. No I wasn’t lucky, placing my day in God’s hands by claiming His promise to protect me was just the sensible thing to do. My dear friend, if you haven’t done so, please consider giving God control of your life because it can be rough, & then there is also eternity to consider which is a very, very, long time!       Best wishes, Tom.