OUR ALMIGHTY PROTECTOR AND GUARDIAN

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

He will guard the feet of His saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.

It is not by strength that one prevails; those who oppose the Lord will be shattered. He will thunder against them from Heaven; the Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

He will give strength to His king and exalt the horn of His anointed.

1 Samuel 2:9-10

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Thus far, there have been six messages written from Hannah’s prayer found in 1st Samuel, Chapter 2…messages that have highlighted different reasons to praise God.

Today is the seventh and last message in this series…fitting because the number “seven” is most associated with completeness or perfection in the scriptures, and we certainly do serve a complete and perfect God who is worthy of all our praise and worship…a God who is our almighty Protector and Guardian. We know this because the Bible tells us so.

Looking at our verses for today, we find Hannah proclaiming that the Lord will “guard the feet of His saints” and silence the wicked “in darkness”. In other words, the Lord guards those who have placed their trust in Him, protecting them from the wicked. Indeed, as long as we stay close to God, we can be sure He will be close to us and shield us from danger.

But where we so often get into trouble in life is when we choose to stray away from Him and pursue our own desires. We wander off from the One who is our protector and leave ourselves vulnerable to the attacks of Satan, our enemy. I don’t know about you but I needed to do this a time or two because it was only then that I learned the consequences that come from trying to go my own way instead of walking alongside the Lord for life is hazardous without Him.

Going back to our verses for today, we should note how God will not just protect us but reign supreme over any enemy that might come forward, no matter how powerful they might be. We have already seen this evident in scriptures as God handed over army after army to the Israelites as they battled Canaanite nations in order to gain possession of the Promised Land. Through those accounts, we saw first-hand where strength didn’t prevail as the Lord shattered those who opposed Him and His people, thundering against Israel’s enemies just as He will do against ours.

We also read where our Lord is the Judge of all He created and will eventually give strength to His king…His anointed one who will be David, something we will see as we later in our study of 1st Samuel.

So what should we take away from these verses today as we conclude this series from Hannah’s prayer? What reason do we find to praise Him?

Well, we see that God does indeed look out for those who place their trust in Him… those who believe in Him with steadfast faith and walk in His light, away from the darkness where Satan resides and sin awaits. And walking in the light is right where God wants us to be for it’s there that we can sing out our praises while testifying of His greatness to all we see.

Meanwhile, those who have chosen the path of darkness…those counted among the wicked…find themselves silenced and disempowered. For God and God alone is the source of any real power a person has…and His power will never be invested in the wicked. Rather, He shatters those who choose to oppose Him, doing it in Old Testament times through our present days.

Friends, what an awesome comfort it is to know that we don’t need to be afraid of things in this earthly existence as long as we stay near to the Lord…our almighty Protector and Guardian. And with this sense of freedom and liberation from fear and anxiety, we can go forth and do what He wants us to do…fully in obedience to His will and way…as we serve Him by serving others and seek to make disciples wherever we go.

In and through our Lord, every day is full of opportunities to make a positive, godly difference, protected by Him through it all. Let’s make sure we give Him praise today for that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.