Is it right to presume that God’s protection will always be upon you? If God has put future plans and goals into your heart, then doesn’t it seem obvious that God would protect you? Wouldn’t He protect you so that these objectives would come to pass? We could look at the life of Jesus as an example. In John 7:29,30 Jesus talks about how He knew God because He came from Him, this irritated the Jews and they tried “to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.” In this case there seems like there was divine protection because God still had things for Jesus to accomplish, so the Jews couldn’t grab Him ahead of the appointed timing of God. With the plan of God came the protection of God. One could take a simplistic approach to this concept and anticipate that since there are things which God would have us to do, He will automatically protect us from all harm also.
This is not what we see in the scripture, for just 28 verses before this it says that, “Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.” Obviously Jesus was not just trusting for the protection of His Heavenly Father. He needed to exercise wisdom and act appropriately. What is the difference between these two situations, how do we know when to trust God for His protection and when to walk in wisdom that says stay away from danger? We don’t want to be always avoiding every difficulty or challenging situation because then we may avoid the very things which seem challenging, but within which God is working. I would like to give you an easy answer for this question, but perhaps there isn’t one. Perhaps what is required is not a rule but a constant walk with the Lord. Through that consistent walk there would be the direction for each situation that we will need.
Lord, may You help us to have a close, continuous walk with You, so that through that relationship, whether there were times of peace or danger, we would have the wisdom and the confidence to know how to act.
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