|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever (Psalm 121:7-8, NLT).
There are many types of prayers.
Whenever I pull out of the driveway in my car as I begin a road trip, I pray, “God, I pray a wall of protection around me as I travel.”
I call this my travel prayer.
I have some variations of this prayer. When I’m in an airplane, as the plane begins to be pushed back from the gate, I ask, “God, I place a wall of protection around this airplane.” When I enter a foreign country, I pray, “God, I place a wall of protection around me while I’m in this country.”
You have noted the common theme of my travel prayer – a wall of protection!
The phrase wall of protection is mentioned in a discourse between God and Satan as they discuss Job, and Satan says to God, “You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property” (Job 1:10).
The difficult part in the story of Job is that God withdrew this wall allowing Satan to inflict Job with the loss of family members and with personal sickness. When reading the book of Job, we question why God removed His protection.
I don’t know the answer. I trust that when bad things happen to righteous saints, I know my God has an eternal purpose that will ultimately reveal His glory!
But we do see in Job God protecting His servants.
Since learning this principle, I’ve added praying a wall of protection to my spiritual weapons arsenal.
Psalm 91 is one long travel prayer. Read closely other details of this wall of protection . . .
- We find rest in the presence of God (v. 1).
- God will rescue us from every trap, deadly disease, spiritual attack, and physical disaster (vv. 3-6).
- He will send angels to help in our time of distress (vv. 11-12).
Psalm 91 concludes with this powerful verse . . .
The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name (v. 14).
Most of us will travel in the next few months. I encourage you to pray for a wall of protection before you travel. Let’s also ask for this wall of protection around family and friends when they travel.
My most unusual wall of protection story was during a bike ride.
I often pray my travel prayer before a bike ride, but I had forgotten to for several days. In the middle of a bike ride, the Lord said to me, “It’s been a while since you prayed your wall of protection prayer about your bike rides.”
I instantly prayed my prayer, and about a mile down the path, just as I passed a large tree, it fell on the path right behind me – a sunny day with little wind and no apparent reason for it to topple!
HHHHMMMHHM . . . God reminding me to pray my wall of protection prayer.
So, I want to remind you to pray this prayer too. Not just my prayer but now our travel prayer.