The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Protection, According To Purpose"
"Safety, according to our Father's primary definition, involves His protection of that which matters most in our hearts and lives, namely, His eternal purpose in Christ and our eternal place in that purpose."
When we ask God for protection and safety, He frequently answers in the context of how we ask, providing His care for our hearts, minds, and bodies. "The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord" (Proverbs 21:31). We rightly rejoice in His defense and His devotion to our natural well being.
However, the Lord sometimes lets the hedge down. Things happen that cause harm to us in the natural sense, and may even seem to damage us in deeper ways. Where is God's protection on those occasions? "They break in pieces Thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage" (Psalm 94:5).
The primary answer lies in our Heavenly Father's stated purpose for His Son, and for His born again sons and daughters in Christ.
"The eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).
"For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29).
God does not deviate from His devotion to the glory and revelation of the Lord Jesus, being guided by an "eternal purpose." Nor does He fail to work in our lives accordingly, ever acting in ways that effect and enhance our spiritual and moral likeness to Christ. At times, this means His protection will manifest in our lives in terms just as we prayerfully desire. At other times, however, God's definition of "safety" will differ from our own. His working to fulfill the primary purpose of glorifying the Lord Jesus and making us like Him will not coincide with protecting us from earthly harm. "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). Presently, painful buffetings serve to fulfill the glory of the Lord Jesus and our best interests no less than pleasant blessings. "Safety," according to our Father's primary definition, involves His protection of that which matters most in our hearts and lives, namely, His eternal purpose in Christ and our eternal place in that purpose.
Romans 8:28, cherished and often memorized by believers, actually involves an incomplete proposal. Without Romans 8:29, already quoted above, God's working in all things has no meaning. We must know why He is doing so.
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29).
Regarding protection, God works all things for the defined "good" of our conformity to the Lord Jesus. When the hedge stands firm and thwarts fiery darts, we rejoice in blessings coordinated to make us like Christ. When fiery darts are allowed to pass over and through the hedge, God protects us by preserving His primary purpose for us. All work together for the good of glorifying the Lord Jesus by furthering our conformity to Him. Prayers for protection are answered no less in one contingency than in another. In essence, God protects the name and glory of His Son when we pray, and His goal of our likeness to the Lord Jesus. He could answer in no more loving and effectual way, ever working according to eternal significance rather than short-sighted temporal realities. The remembrance of such grace and truth results in the gratitude commanded by the Apostle Paul, based on God's protection, according to purpose…
"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
(I Thessalonians 5:18)
Weekly Memory Verse
Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord, He is God in Heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else.
(Deuteronomy 4:39)
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