Loving Cover

UV 2308/10000 Loving Cover
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
2 Timothy 4 v 18

The Lord Jesus taught us to pray, “Deliver us from evil.” This uni-verse gives the testimony of St Paul that the Lord delivered him from every evil attack. The first evil that the Lord delivered Paul from was his hostility to Jesus and misguided dedication in eradicating the followers of Jesus and every vestige of their faith. We too need to pray for those who wrongly, unjustly or wickedly attack us, that the Lord deliver them from such evil. Jesus went on to glorify His name in and through the life and work of St Paul- he became the most avid of followers and conveyor of the good news that man can hereafter live forever if he reposes faith in the name and work of Jesus. Not only had Jesus delivered Paul from evil but turned him into a source of good for many generations including his contemporary world. In addition to being an ambassador of Christ in many nations of the then known world, he laid the doctrinal foundations of the faith in his many epistles or letters that he wrote to those he had ministered to.

The Lord had delivered Paul also from the mouth of the lion: from dangers to his life in captivity to Jews, Romans and others, from natural calamities, shipwreck, earthquakes, prison, mobs and so on. Likewise to this day, the Lord delivers us from the mouth of the lion while we travel, while we carry on our day to day activities. He stands beside us and strengthens us while we face hardships, obstacles, crisis in our lives. He sends his angel to strengthen us, to preserve our lives as he did with Jacob, with Daniel, with Peter and Paul. The Lord preserves us from falling into temptations of the flesh or of the mind: lusts as well as pride or ego. He sensitises us and keeps us continually humble so that we can be continually receiving grace or help from Him in all situations of our lives. The enemy does proxy boxing through some human agents by instigating them against us but the Lord will shield us as we yield to Him and enable us to have victory. He will turn the evil they planned against us to our own good.

Sometimes, we may be knocked down to our feet by the hard punch of the enemy but the Lord enables us to rise again, to walk and not be deterred. The Lord has committed that He will preserve us till we reach His heavenly kingdom. He will not fail or forsake any of us as long as we hold on to our faith. He longs to cover us as a mother hen covers her chicken under her wings. We can and do run for such loving cover to Him whenever we come under enemy fire.

Prateep V Philip