Protected?
Let’s begin by putting this tension on the table.
God doesn’t protect His people from everything but His people are always under His protection.
For some of you, this may be the very reason why you decided at some point to walk away from faith.
If God is God and if God is good, why did he let that happen? If God is God and if God is good, why did he get sick, why did she have to die, why was I let go from my job, why was the person I love hurt?
Why, God?
At some point it felt like God didn’t protect you or protect the person you love from something that happened and when that happened, you decided it would be easier to not believe in God than to believe in a God who doesn’t protect His people from what happened to you or to the person you care about.
And I understand.
This may be one of THE MOST difficult questions we have to wrestle with in our humanity. If God is God and if God is good, why doesn’t He protect us from those things that might harm us?
14 years ago…
A little over 14 years ago, I become a father. That’s when our first child was born. A son.
If you asked him he could verify that what I’m about to tell you is true. While he has always been under my protection, I have not protected him from everything.
I am not the perfect father, but I am a father. And like other fathers, like most every parent will understand, while we do not, and honestly cannot, protect our kids from everything, they are always under our protection.
And the fundamental reason for this is simply because…
Their protection is not our greatest concern.
Safety, Security, and Protection
That might surprise you to hear me say that because we live in a world that highly values safety, security, and protection.
As a nation, we spend billions on our national defense. We spend billions on cyber-security. We employ millions of people who work as first responders, in law enforcement, in security, in the military, and other agencies to protect us and we are thankful for their service.
We do everything within our power to protect our things, to protect our investments, to protect our future, to protect our health, to protect our loved ones.
We live in a world that highly values safety, security, and protection.
Idol
And if our protection and self preservation becomes our highest concern, we can very quickly make an idol out of our need for safety and security.
The reason we’ve placed such a high value on our safety, security, and protection is because we are afraid. Our greatest fear drives our greatest sense of need. And at the end of the day, what we’re most afraid of is loss.
But… if we believe what we say we believe, if we believe that God is who He says He is, then… everything changes.
A Different Question
So maybe the question isn’t, If God is God and if God is good, why doesn’t he protect us from what might harm us? Maybe the question we need to be asking is a different question.
If the fundamental reason for my decision as a father not to protect my children from everything I could protect them from is because their protection is not my greatest concern…
What if God’s reason, His decision, not to protect us from everything He could protect us from is because in the mind of our Heavenly Father there’s something hanging in the balance that is even more important than our safety and protection?
Something so important that even though we are always, always under his protection, He allows us at times to experience hardship, pain, problems, and trouble.
The Perfect Father
In 2 Corinthians 1.3-10, the Apostle Paul writes…
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.
Before we go any further, I want you to notice the way Paul talks about God. Paul talks about God the same way Jesus talked about God when Jesus walked the earth. Jesus talks about God as “our Father.”
In other words, God is the perfect father. I know not everyone has or has had a perfect father. Even the best father isn’t the perfect the father. But God is not just a good, good, Father. He’s the perfect Father. He is merciful and He is THE source of all comfort.
Which begs the question… if God is the perfect Father, why would we need mercy, why would we need comfort? Wouldn’t He PROTECT us from anything that might bring us discomfort?
Why do we need mercy and comfort?
Paul writes…
He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.
Don’t miss this. Your pain has a purpose. Whatever you’ve been through. Whatever you’re going through. It’s not for nothing. Your struggle has significance.
God Wants You To EXPERIENCE HIS Comfort
1 // In the middle of your crisis God wants to extend you His comfort. This is an eternal truth that you see all across the pages of scripture and all throughout the lives of people of faith through the ages. There’s something that happens in suffering that can’t happen any other way. When it seems like everything has been taken away, when there’s nothing left but God and you turn to Him and you experience His grace, His comfort, His love… everything changes for you. You see this in the lives of people who’ve been to the bottom of the pit and found out God was there. Everything changes for them.
God Wants You To EXTEND HIS Comfort
2 // And then… you realize that there are others who are going through exactly what you’re going through and what you’ve been through. And now, you get to share not just what you found when you were at the end of your rope, but WHO you found when you were at the end of your rope. Your pain has a purpose. Not only does it clear the way for you to experience the grace and presence of God, it opens the door for you to share the good news of His grace and love with others just like you.
Trouble will Come
But Paul doesn’t base all this on some kind of grand theology and this isn’t the self-help section of the Bible… Paul says all of this based on His own personal experience. Paul says…
We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia.
Now we don’t know exactly what Paul is talking about here. Honestly, it could have been anything. Paul had been shipwrecked, beaten, stoned, whipped, imprisoned, sick, threatened by mobs, you name it Paul had been through it. All we know is that whatever Paul is referencing here, it was so serious his life was in danger. He says…
We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die.
Notice… Paul doesn’t ask, Why do bad things happen to good people? Paul doesn’t complain about the hardship or difficulty he’s been through. Paul doesn’t wonder why a God who is good doesn’t protect him from things that are difficult. Instead, Paul has a different perspective…
But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. 10 And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.
My Kids Experience Pain
As a parent, my kids are always under my protection, but their protection is not my primary concern.
You might think that I’m not a good father.
But when they’re sick, I’m willing to let a doctor give them a shot, even if it hurts, for their benefit.
If they want to play a sport, I’m willing to let a coach or teacher make them run, make them sweat, and make them suffer a little bit if it will help them get better.
If they’re at home and I tell them to clean their room or do some chores and they get mad at me and they’re unhappy about it I’m willing for them to be angry at me, upset with me, frustrated with me, and even disappointed in me if need be so they can learn responsibility at home and that as a part of our family, they have to do their part.
I could go on and on. There are hundreds of scenarios, maybe thousands of reasons, I would allow and sometimes I am the reason behind my children experiencing some kind of tension, pain, problem, hardship, or difficulty.
That’s because as their father I will not and cannot protect them from everything but they are always under my protection.
That’s because as there father I know there is something hanging in the balance that is far greater than their need for safety and protection.
Because I know there are no diamonds without pressure.
There is no gold without the refiners fire.
I know they will have to stand up under the pressure, they will have to face the refiner’s fire, if they are going to BECOME who they are called to BECOME! Growth, becoming, only happens when we walk through the tension. Pain has purpose. Struggle has significance.
God’s Greatest Concern for You?
What is God’s overarching goal for you? What is hanging in the balance that is far greater than your need for safety and protection.
God’s goal for you, for humanity, all comes down to this… to come to know the love of God in Jesus & to be transformed more and more into his image.
Just a few verses later, Paul would say it this way…
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being TRANSFORMED into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. – 2 Corinthians 3.18
Today, you may be going through pain, problems, suffering, and hard times. But don’t give up on God. He has not given up on you. Have faith that your God is your Father in Heaven. And he’s not just any father, he’s the perfect Father.
While he may not protect you from everything, you are always under his protection. You can “rely only on God, who raises the dead.” He can “rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.” And through it all He will TRANSFORM you more and more into the image of His Son Jesus.
In a world where people pray for protection what if God is looking for a new generation of people who will pray for and live by faith?
Faithful to Protect
Paul would later write these words…
The Lord is faithful, who will establish you and protect you from the evil one. – 2 Thessalonians 3.3
So here’s what I want you to know today… that,
God is faithful to protect you as Christ is being perfected in you.
Do you need help? Call on His name.
Are you feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders? Lift your eyes to Him.
Does it seem like the Enemy is coming against you? Put on the full armor of God.
In every situation, in every circumstance, your God is with you, He is for you, He is faithful to protect you and make you more than a conqueror. No weapon formed against you will succeed.
God doesn’t protect His people from everything but His people are always under His protection.
“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his love on those who love him and obey his commands.” – Deuteronomy 7.9
God will be faithful to protect you as Christ is being perfected in you today. You can trust Him.
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