Do you ever feel unsafe?
Like no one has your back?
Living in a fallen world with a 100% death rate (except for Elijah and Enoch) and a lot of evil going on in our world can make any of us feel a little unsettled.
Sometimes, even though we can say we trust God, we can still struggle to rest in that trust.
In the aftermath of the discovery of my now ex-husband being a sex offender and the five years of court that followed, then a near-death experience, I struggled to trust that God was protecting me.
I began to place walls around me and my children and honestly dealt with PTSD and incredible fear while the ground beneath me that I thought was so stable was ripped from underneath my feet.
How could God allow all this?
Have you ever wondered that question?
In that same season I endured being arrested (due to a court error) when I purchased a gun in the aftermath of a robbery (you can read more about all those shennanigans in my book Shame Off You). I came to a point where I realized the incredible stress I was under was due in part to not knowing if God was for me and what He would allow next.
Thank God He is patient with us.
The truth is, the discovery of my ex-husband’s tremendous sin was God’s protection and guarding of my and my children’s lives. Sometimes deliverance is hard. But God was with us every step of the way.
The Holy Spirit revealed the abuse and many other moments of miraculous revelations to protect us. And eventually God set us free.
That season marked me.
In good ways and bad ways. I became self-protective and anxious in all my relationships because of the betrayal and torture of court proceedings that were attempts to turn the tables on me.
One reason we become self-protective is that somewhere along the way, we stopped feeling safe.
Maybe someone we trusted betrayed us. The thing we prayed wouldn’t happen happened anyway. Maybe life taught us that people aren’t always dependable, circumstances aren’t always predictable, and vulnerability sometimes hurts.
So we learn to protect ourselves.
We build walls. We anticipate what could go wrong. Keep people at a distance. Try to control circumstances. And sometimes beneath all of that is a question we might be afraid to say aloud:
God, can I really trust You to protect me?
But my husband’s betrayal was not God’s.
Psalm 121 gives us a beautiful answer to that question.
“I lift my eyes toward the mountains.
Where will my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
your Protector will not slumber.
4 Indeed, the Protector of Israel
does not slumber or sleep.
5 The Lord protects you;
the Lord is a shelter right by your side.
6 The sun will not strike you by day
or the moon by night.
7 The Lord will protect you from all harm;
he will protect your life.
8 The Lord will protect your coming and going both now and forever.”
The psalmist looks toward the mountains and asks: “Where will my help come from?”And then answers:
“My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1–2).
The rest of the psalm repeatedly describes a God who watches over, keeps, guards, and protects His people.
But how do we reconcile this with suffering?
The crisis of belief in our faith happens when life simply hurts. Bad. Will we believe God is who Scripture says He is, and believe that He is good when life does not seem very good?
In my moment of crisis, I chose to believe, despite all the painful circumstances that screamed at me.
And then I could see and understand.
Repenting of doubting God, I cried out to Him and asked Him to help me believe that somehow He could fix what seemed impossible.
Jesus promised us problems in a fallen world (John 16:33). But He also promised that He would always be with us (Matthew 28:20).
Christ is our hope—not a perfect life.
Then I realized as I read God’s love letter to us, His precious Word, that God is not unaware of our suffering, and He hurts when we do. One verse in particular that reminds me of God’s compassion is in Isaiah, where God’s heart toward His people is so beautifully shown:
“In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years” (Isaiah 63:9, NLT).
We cannot avoid suffering in this life, but we can walk with our Savior through that suffering.
The One who made heaven and earth is watching over you.
That doesn’t mean nothing painful will ever touch your life. It means nothing that touches your life can remove you from His care. And perhaps that’s where freedom from self-protection begins.
5 Ways to Trust God’s Protection
1. God Is Our Keeper
We can spend enormous energy trying to keep ourselves from being hurt, disappointed, misunderstood or rejected.
But Psalm 121 shifts our attention from our ability to keep ourselves to God’s ability to keep us.
He doesn’t sleep, become distracted, or lose sight of us—ever. He doesn’t discover what happened to us after the fact. Knowing this truth frees me in my relationships when I think I have to control and protect myself from others.
We can rest because our Keeper never does.
2. God Is Our Refuge
Psalm 91 describes God as our “refuge” and “fortress.” That’s significant when we’re tempted toward self-protection. We don’t have to become our own fortress. God already is one.
A fortress we build around our hearts may keep people out, but taking refuge in God allows us to remain wise without becoming hard.
Being guarded does not mean hardened. It can mean learning to walk in wisdom and choosing not to let other people’s behavior penetrate our trust in God to deal with the situations we face in our relationships.
We can establish boundaries and exercise discernment. But we don’t have to choose to be offended.
When God is our refuge, fear doesn’t have to become our architect.
3. God’s Protection Is His Presence
Sometimes we interpret God’s protection to mean, God won’t let anything bad happen to me.
But Scripture never makes that promise.
David called God his fortress while people were trying to kill him.
Paul experienced persecution while proclaiming God’s faithfulness.
Jesus told His disciples they would experience trouble.
God’s protection doesn’t always mean deliverance from difficulty.
Sometimes it means His sustaining presence through it.
Isaiah 43:2 says: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers will not overwhelm you.” Notice God doesn’t say if you pass through the waters. He says when. But He also says: “I will be with you.”
Maybe safety isn’t the absence of anything that could hurt us.
Maybe biblical security is knowing that whatever happens, we will never face it without Him.
4. God’s Protection Reaches What No One Can Take
Jesus gives us an even deeper picture in John 10. Speaking about His sheep, He says: “No one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).
There are things we can lose in this life. Relationships. Opportunities. Possessions. Reputation. Health. Dreams.
But there are things no human being and no circumstance can take from the child of God.
Our identity in Christ. Our belonging to Him. His presence. His promises. His love. Our eternal inheritance.
Paul asks in Romans 8:35: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ?”
And after naming trouble, distress, persecution, famine, danger, and even death, his answer is essentially:
Nothing.
That’s security. Not that nothing can happen to me. But nothing that happens to me can take me out of His hands.
5. Trust Lets Us Put Down Our Armor
Sometimes we’ve been wearing emotional armor for so long that we’ve forgotten how heavy it is.
Always anticipating. Always analyzing. Preparing for disappointment. Keeping part of ourselves safely tucked away.
But what if God is inviting us to put down armor He never asked us to carry?
Like the exhausting belief that everything depends on us keeping ourselves safe.
It doesn’t. You and I are guarded by God.
We are held by Christ.
We are covered by His presence.
And We are loved with a love nothing can separate you from.
That doesn’t make us careless.
It makes us secure.
Mindset Reset
This week, ask yourself: Where am I trying to protect myself because I’m struggling to trust God’s protection?
Then bring that place honestly before Him.
Maybe the prayer isn’t, “God, promise me this will never hurt again.”
Maybe it’s: “God, help me trust that whatever comes, You will still be there.”
Because faith doesn’t require us to believe nothing painful will happen.
Faith reminds us that nothing can happen outside the reach of God’s presence, care, and redeeming love.
And perhaps that’s what allows a guarded heart to remain a soft one.
You don’t have to become your own fortress when God has promised to be your refuge.
Prayer
Father, thank You for being my Keeper, my refuge, my fortress, and my help. Forgive me for the places where fear has convinced me that everything depends on me protecting myself. Help me trust Your care without confusing Your protection with a life free from pain. When I walk through difficult places, remind me that You are with me. When I feel vulnerable, remind me that I am held. Give me wisdom for healthy boundaries and discernment in my relationships, but keep fear from hardening my heart. Help me rest in the security of knowing that nothing can separate me from Your love and no one can snatch me from Your hand. You are my safe place. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
God’s protection isn’t the promise that nothing painful will touch us. It’s the promise that nothing that touches us can separate us from Him.
Visit the Shame Rx Blog for this week’s post, You Don’t Have to Be Vulnerable.
All for Jesus,
Denise