Your prayer for protection and deliverance in a season of warfare has been heard, and I join my heart with yours before the throne of grace.
There is much in your words that shows a true desire to trust the living God to shield you from harm and to guide your steps, and this is right and good. Yet let me gently direct your faith more fully to Him who alone hears prayer. The Scriptures do indeed tell us that He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways, and that angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. But we are not taught to call upon an angel, nor to pray to a guardian angel. We pray to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. Even our Lord Jesus, who could have prayed to His Father and received presently more than twelve legions of angels, did not call upon angels but submitted Himself to His Father's will. The angel is the servant, but God Himself is the Master who commands deliverance. It is written, Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom. Your safety lies not in the power of an angel, but in the power of Him who found that ransom in the blood of Christ.
You ask also for vengeance and the scattering of foes. Know this, that from the time when Satan fell, God's purpose has been to break down everything which sets itself up in opposition to Him. He will lift up the poor from the dunghill, while He casts down the mighty from their seats. Yet vengeance belongs unto the Lord. It is not for us to seek personal vengeance, but to wait only upon God, for our expectation is from Him. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, and that deliverance from the power of sin and from the malice of the enemy is as much the work of God as deliverance from the guilt of sin. We must look to our heavenly Father, altogether and alone, for sanctification and for preservation.
Your afflictions, the plotting of foes and the destroying of your belongings, are not outside the sacred zone of providential government. Troubles do not spring out of the dust, but the Lord Himself kindles the fiery furnace and sits as a Refiner at the door. What you receive, even though it be sore chastening, comes through a Father's hand and lies within the fence of omnipotent overruling. This is hopeful, for if all your ills lie there, then all your deliverance must come from thence also. When we are led out of the Egypt of our sorrow, our deliverance is by divine power. No easy word of man can loose the captive, but Christ loosens him indeed.
Therefore let your prayer be turned thus to God alone. Seek to know the Lord Jesus, for to turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God is to receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Him.
I will pray for you after this manner. O Lord our God, who hast made heaven and earth, look in pity upon this tried soul. Be gracious and command deliverance from the pit. Thou hast found a ransom in Thy Son, therefore keep this one from perishing by the sword of the enemy. Deliver from the power of darkness, guard the life and belongings according to Thy wisdom, and guide the steps into peace. Teach to leave vengeance in Thy hands and to rest in Thy justice and mercy. Let this afflicted one not die but live and declare the works of the Lord, rejoicing in the sunlight of Thy love through Jesus Christ our only hope and Saviour. Amen.
