In Saint Luke’s gospel chapter 22, verse 31, Jesus says, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.” (Luke 22:31NIV) That means, at the time that Jesus was speaking, it was satan’s desire to separate his disciples from his ministry, to separate them from the kingdom of God, to scatter them, to sift them as wheat. But look at what Jesus did in verse 32: He says, “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22:32NIV)
Here Jesus is talking about spiritual protection. Remember in Matthew 26:41, he said to his disciples: “Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation.” See, if we don’t pray along this line, satan will rubbish us. You know satan keeps setting traps for God’s people. And he expects them to fall into those traps. But we can pray to God so that he will protect us and keep us from falling into the traps of the devil. That was what Jesus did for his disciples. He prayed for them so that satan will not make a mess of their faith, after following him for over three years.
A lot of Christians are not aware of this. That is why you may hear people say about some Christian, “Oh, he is a very wonderful brother. But he is greedy.” See, that is a trap that he has fallen into. In every other thing, he is a wonderful person. But he is greedy. That means satan has succeeded in making him trip in that area of his life. Or you hear them say, “Oh, he is a wonderful Pastor. But he is a womaniser.” Or they might say, “Oh he is great. But he is impatient.” These are some of the things that satan uses to spoil the testimony of God’s people. However, if we will pray for ourselves, God will keep us from falling into such traps.
There is a very similar scripture to that in Saint John’s gospel, chapter seventeen. Let me read from verse 9: Jesus says, “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world. I am coming to you. Holy father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.” (John 17:9-11NIV) Now if you will go to verse 15, Jesus continues, saying, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:15NIV)
Can you see that? Jesus was praying for spiritual protection for his disciples. That is a kind of prayer. And every one of us should be involved in praying that way. You are to pray for yourself and for others, so that you don’t fall into the traps of the devil and so that satan does not mess up their lives or their testimonies as Christians. You know as long as we are in the world, we will be confronted with trials and we will be confronted with challenges. And observe that Jesus did not say to God, “I want you to take them out of the world.” No. Instead, he says, “Protect them, even while they are in the world, from the evil one.”
Also, we can pray for physical protection. Look at Romans 15—I am just trying to give us some prayers that are stated for us in the scriptures—from verse 30, Paul says, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” (Romans 15:30NIV) Look at that! Paul did not just say, “Pray for me…” Instead, he says, “Join me…” He did not transfer his prayer responsibility to them. He only invited them to join him as partners in praying. He says, “…join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” But what kind of prayer is he referring to? Look at verse 31: He says, “Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea…” (Romans 15:31NIV)
That presents to us his first prayer point—for physical protection from real people. In 2 Thessalonians 3 he admonishes the church at Thessalonica to also offer the same prayer, that they may be rescued from wicked and unreasonable men. There abound all around us dangerous people, armed robbers, assassins, kidnappers, thieves and so forth. But we can receive protection from these people from God. So we can pray for ourselves along this line. We can also pray for our family members and colleagues and friends along this line, that in all their endeavours, the Lord will protect them from dangerous men and wicked people. Some of us work with them. Some of us live among them. Sometimes we find ourselves travelling with them. But God is able to protect us from all these fellows, if we will pray.
I am sure this was the kind of prayer the church offered for Peter when Herod arrested him. They prayed for protection, and God protected him. (Cf. Acts 12) See, there are things that we experience in our lives that we are not supposed to experience at all, if we will pray. Some of us have people around us who are trying to make life difficult for us. You can talk to God about such people. This is not that God will destroy them, but that he will keep you from being harmed by them.
Apart from that, look at the next thing Paul asks them to pray about—I will take the whole verse again: He says, “Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favourably received by the Lord’s people there.” (Romans 15:31NIV) What again was he asking for? He was asking for favour from the Lord. He was travelling, and so he was asking these people to join him in prayers that his journey would be a success. From time to time, we travel; we have brethren that want to travel; we have neighbours that want to travel. We can pray for them that their journeys will be successful. You can pray for yourself as well when you want to travel, that your journey will be successful; that you will not come back with stories and excuses. This is how we live the Christian life.
Life Application: Who can you begin to pray for today (yourself, a family member or a colleague), asking God to protect them from the traps of the devil or from harmful people?