For a little while I have been wrestling out the topic of God’s Protection. I had a beloved friend share with me a horrible event that happened to her son. My heart filled with anxiety as I listened. “Wait, how could this happen?” I thought to myself, “She loves God, she prays for her children, I know she was agreeing in scripture over their lives……I HAVE A SON, could this happen to him too?” I was completely wrecked.My whole world had been thrown off axis. I needed answers.

I began my journey by asking the Lord to teach me. I had to put my heart back in place in the center of Truth. God is always Good. His NEVER breaks His promise. Nothing separates us from His love. He NEVER leaves us nor forsakes us. He answers the prayers of His children.

I started by talking to my mentor. She said to me, “So Jenna, do you pray to try to control the outcome? Did God not love Jesus because He allowed Him to suffer and die for us? Did God not protect the disciples when they each considered it an honor to be martyred for His Gospel of Peace? What do you do with the scriptures about sharing in His sufferings?”

I did NOT like this response! I did NOT like someone alluding it may be true that because I am in Christ doesn’t mean  harm will not befall me!!!! I did NOT want THIS bubble to get burst. I didn’t want to mature in this area of thinking…..NO NO NO! But God said, Yes, so I continued on.

I spoke with a dear friend of mine and she said, “Jenna I think the problem you are having is that you are trying to understand an Infinite God through finite eyes.” Through this powerful statement ( and I am sure the prayers of others asking God for my heart to be softened to learn His truth on the matter) I was able to remember something the Lord showed me not to very long ago.

I was contemplating His protection one day, as I was studying Psalm 91, and I was thanking Him for innumerable events I could specifically see His protection on my life in. As I finished He responded, ” You are welcome, Jenna, but they number of times Satan has asked to bring things into your life and I have said NO keep them far from her, is far greater than the protection you are aware of.”

As I remembered this, I also considered the truth that God can work everything together for our good. I began to allow myself to consider how we are in a world where sin exists and how everything that happens IS NOT God’s will. He gave us free will, and He will not violate that. However, because He is God He makes beautiful out of our ugly. And man, can it get ugly!

He reminded me of a dream I had not too long ago where I was being tortured in every way because of my profession of Christ and because I would not stop sharing the Love of God. As I was enduring every blow they gave to me, the strangest thing was happening. My joy and peace were untouched and the only thought I had over and over was, “I have been crucified with Christ, therefore I no longer live, but Jesus Christ now lives in me. You cannot take that away, no matter what you do to me.” As I meditated upon this dream, asking Him to reveal to me what I need to learn through it, He was showing me how His protection doesn’t mean we won’t face suffering, it means He will walk through it with us, and we can have Victory in Christ, in our hearts, spirits, and minds even through the trials. That is powerful! That is true protection!

I was allowing Him to mature my thinking, renew my mind, in this area, and one morning I finally said, ” Just show me in Your Word again, affirm to me again what is really true about your protection. Please continue to redefine for me what it means to be protected by You.”

He brought me to Psalm 73. It was remarkable, please read it for yourselves. What I got from it was there is no doubt that God is Good. So even when bad thing happen, God is good. The psalmist expressed, “I almost missed seeing His goodness because I was too busy looking in another direction.” I began to understand how this issue and fear of being protected from evil really isn’t where my focus should be. My focus should be, “Seek first the Kingdom of God…..and all things will be added unto me.” He continued to say, “Although I’ve been ignorant as an ox in Your Presence, I was STILL in Your Presence. And You led me gently, compassionately, and then You blessed me!” What an awesome God, although I was asking questions that were not even where I needed to worry about, He gently led me and blessed me anyway! The psalmist ends by saying, “God You are all I want in Heaven AND on Earth.” As I read that, I thought, “Could that really become the cry of my heart? He was enough, everything, all?” Everything besides having Him is truly icing on the cake?He alone is more than enough for me?

I’m not there yet friends, but that is the cry of my heart. I want Him to be everything. I want to whisper a surprised thanks for everything above the gift of having been saved through Christ. I want to recognize everything as a blessing, a not deserved, not promised blessing from the hand of a good and loving God. I want to get this so deeply rooted in my heart and spirit so that when the next storm comes I do not have a faith crisis and life crisis simultaneously. I am choosing daily to declare, “God is always good, and I am always loved.”

One last thing was when I was talking about this to my counselor, he brought me back to Genesis and how God’s original plan was NOT for us to be concerned with good and evil, but to only eat from the Tree of Life and enjoy Him and His creation. Praise God! I can do that! =)

We can count on Him. He has our back. He is Faithful. He is Trustworthy. He earned my trust on the cross, and nothing can change that. You are divinely protected my friend! It is the TRUTH!