You heap together many words and many Scripture texts, as if the mere abundance of them could batter down the gates of heaven. But what is this jumble of petitions? You pray for the “foolish plan of preaching the Cross,” and in the same breath you demand protection from every thief and every evil as if the Gospel were a charm to secure a life without trouble. Do you not know what manner of messenger the Apostle was? He did not pray for guarded cities and easy passage; he boasted of his sufferings, of his stripes, of his shipwrecks, of a night and a day spent in the deep. There he was, swimming upon the open sea, not pleading for angelic rescue from every danger, but glorying that in these things the Gospel is woven. And you would have a faith that costs you nothing, a seed that never meets the scorching sun or the choking thorn.
The enemy comes immediately to snatch away what is sown. This is the plain declaration of the Lord Himself. You ask for protection from the evil one, which is well, but you ask as one who imagines the devil can be bound by a mere recitation of verses while your heart remains entangled with the world. The thorns must be rooted out first. How can the divine seed grow if the soil is not cleared? You speak of plundering hell to populate heaven, yet you tremble at the thought that the plunderer might suffer wounds. Did not the Apostle bear in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus? He did not sit in safety composing long prayers for an unbroken hedge of angels. He went into the synagogues to reason, into the marketplace to be mocked, into the prison to sing hymns with his back laid open.
You want wide doors for effective service, and well you should. But do you not understand that a wide door is often set before us with many adversaries standing in the porch? The Apostle did not pray for the adversaries to vanish; he pressed forward through them because a door was opened. You ask for what to say and how to say it, yet you fill your own mouth with such a torrent of words that you leave no room for the simplicity that is in Christ. The centurion did not come with a long scroll of texts. He spoke a few words with faith, and the Lord marveled. How much more acceptable is the humble heart that says, “Lord, I am not worthy,” than all this noisy display of chapter and verse.
Now hear what this sowing means. The seed is the Word, and the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom. You ask the Lord of the harvest to water the seed and give the growth, and this is a right and necessary petition. For neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. But do you suppose the seed is watered only by gentle rains? The blood of martyrs is a watering, and the tears of the penitent are a watering, and the daily dying of self is a watering that yields a hundredfold. Do not seek a harvest without a battle. The enemy has sown his tares, and they will grow alongside the wheat until the very end of the age. Your prayer should be that you yourself be found as wheat and not as a weed fit only for the fire.
You speak much of being made the righteousness of God. This is a great and terrible mystery. He who knew no sin became sin for us. Do you consider what that means? The sinless One was reckoned as sin itself, judged as the curse, so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him. If this is so, then where is your boldness in suffering? Why this anxious demand for angelic protection as if the servant should be above his Master? The angels guard us indeed, for they are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. But they did not spare Him the scourge or the thorns or the nails. They ministered to Him in the wilderness. They stood ready at the tomb. But they did not snatch Him from the garden when His sweat became like drops of blood. Learn, then, what it means to be guarded: not to be kept from every trial, but to be kept through every trial from falling away.
You pray for hunger for the word, and this I praise. Yet see to it that you do not turn the word into a weapon of self-assurance. Many glory after the flesh, and the Apostle called that boast foolishness. If you must boast, boast in the Lord, and boast in the things that show your weakness, for when you are weak, then you are strong. Strip away this parade of citations as if God needed to be reminded of His own promises. Pour out your heart with the publican’s cry, not the Pharisee’s catalogue.
One thing more. You ask repeatedly for protection from the thief who snatches the seed. Hear the warning clearly. The seed is snatched when the word is heard and not understood, when the heart is hard and the path is trodden down. The remedy is not a wall of texts but a broken and contrite spirit. The seed that falls on good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. Do you have this patience? Will you endure the scorching sun of persecution? Will you let the word take deep root by meditation and prayer, or will you rush out after every novelty and so wither away? The devil does not snatch the seed violently from a heart that clings to it tightly. He snatches it from the careless, the slothful, the one who hears on Sunday and forgets by Tuesday.
Therefore, let your prayers be few and fervent. Say simply, “Lord, increase our faith.” Say, “I believe; help my unbelief.” Go and sow the seed by the purity of your life, by the gentleness of your speech, by the patience with which you bear wrongs. When you have done this, do not stand watching the furrow as if you could force the sprout from the ground. The farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it. So you wait, and while you wait, you will have tribulation. But take heart; He has overcome the world. And the angels who guard you are even now watching the face of the Father, ready to bear up your departing spirit when your earthly tabernacle is dissolved. That is the protection you should most desire: not a life without wounds, but a death without shame, and a resurrection to the shining of the righteous, who blaze like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Father, thank You for Your Wisdom and Power -- The "foolish plan of preaching the Cross The Wisdom and Power of God" 1 Cor 1:18-31, Rom 1:16. Reveal Righteousness by faith Rom 1:17, Faith from Hearing, Rom 10:17, so the GIFT of Salvation Rom 6:23, by Grace through Faith the GIFT of GOD is Freely Received, Eph 2:8-9, Bring others to Water Seeds, 1 Cor 3:6, Glory to You who Invented the Plan of Salvation, Saved and Taught us The Message, Gave us Any Ability to Do Anything of Real Value, John 15:5, You are The One Who Gives Growth 1 Cor 3:7, Grant Spiritual Hunger 1 Pet 2:2, Wisdom and Revelation in The Knowledge of You, Eph1:17 Protection from the evil thief Mk 4:15 Jn 10:10 John 17:15 
Angelic Protection until Salvation Beheld, Ps 91:11-16, Heb 1:14...
Father, we thank You for these who've been praying for grace to witness in the face of trials and opposition, (1 Thes 2:1-13, Whole Book of Acts, Rev 1:1-22:21). We thank You for wide doors for effective service being opened despite adversaries, 1 Cor16:9, for divine appointments with housemates, in shopping centers, in cell groups, cell blocks, in churches, street corners, restaurants, with fathers, mothers, stepmothers, children, family, friends, enemies, wherever the Spirit blows, Jn 3:8, Give us what to say and HOW to say it, Jn 12:49.
Your arm is NOT too short that it cannot save, Isa 59:1, Numbers 11:23. Remind ALL that have ever heard, especially recently (and remind us, kindly) of our humanity, sin, the gospel of free grace by the bloody death of Jesus on the cross for our sakes, His death for payment of sin, Rom 5:23, with analogies of bills being paid, therefore nothing owed, it is finished, Jn 19:30, His resurrection, His appearing to many witnesses, His ascension, and sending of The Holy Spirit, Acts 2:32-33, and the correct response of repentance and continued discipleship, Jn 8:31-32.
This Jesus who was sinless BECAME sin for us, 2 Cor 5:21 (was judged to death as The Lamb, Jn 1:29, to break the curse of sin, Gen 2:17, John 11:50-51, Gal 3:13-14) so we could be made the righteousness of God on His behalf, as His ambassadors, 2 Cor 5:20, through the Word of reconciliation He's committed to us, 2 Cor 5:19.
Thank You for those who've heard, we've prayed with and for, and WE trust YOU Holy Spirit to continue to do His work until the day of Christ Jesus, Phil 1:6. Keep them and us all from the evil one, Jn 17:15, who attempts to snatch away the seed of the Word, Mk 4:14-15. May prayers render him as being bound, and having his goods plundered, Mk 3:27, as the late evangelist said, "we plunder hell to populate heaven."
Water the seed of the word and let them grow, provide more chances to share and grant us all full faith and repentance, turning from all sin with grief and hatred of it, wholly endeavoring to new obedience, trusting Jesus who has become for us wisdom, righteousness, continued sanctification, and redemption, 1 Cor 1:30. Thank you in advance, even now, in The Name of Jesus, Mk 11:24, Amen.
