We Ought To Pray For Protection Series

We Ought to Pray for Protection

Most of us would cheer for someone who defended their children and their home from someone trying to break into the house in the middle of the night. And certainly they deserve our cheering for doing what they had to do, using whatever force they had to use, to protect their children and their home.

But we also must never forgot there is an enemy who want to break into our homes, attack our children, throw our home in chaos, and beat our family down. And we must have the same vigilance in defeating this enemy as the person trying to break into our home. The difference is this is a spiritual enemy. The devil and his demons want to destroy your home. He and his demons want to destroy this church. And conventional physical weapons will not work against this enemy. We must use spiritual weapons to fight off the spiritual enemy.

And that is where the problem comes in- most Christians don’t know how to protect spiritually their family and their home. They don’t know how to protect their church. They don’t use the weapons Jesus has given them to keep their home and their church safe.

Jesus prayed many prayers while ministering with his disciples that were recorded in the Gospel accounts. This prayer we are going to look at today is the longest one of Jesus’ prayers that was written in the Scripture. This prayer was meant to be overheard by the disciples. And so, I believe this prayer had a twofold purpose. Certainly, it was Jesus communicating with the Father, but it was also a teaching moment for the disciples as to how to seek protection when Jesus would no longer be with them.

So, let us begin by reading our Scripture from Luke 17:9-19.

Scripture

John 17:9–19 (NKJV)

9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

Point #1

There is power in the name of Jesus. Use it as a weapon against the devil; do not find yourself just tacking the name of Jesus onto the end of a prayer.

Vs. 11… Keep through your Name...

Jesus had just finished praying: All mine are yours, and yours are mine. And what Jesus is saying is that I and the Father are one. It is a mystery for our brains, but that is what the Scripture teaches. So, it is fair to say that in the name of Jesus the triune God provides protection for His Children.

And there is power in that name Jesus to protect your family, to protect this church. Remember what Paul says in Philippians 2:9 Therefore God has given Him the name which is above every name.

John 14:13–14 (LEB)

13 And whatever you ask in my name, I will do this, in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

So based upon that Scripture, it seems to me that if you ask in the power of the name of Jesus for protection for your family, your home and church, Jesus will protect.

I wonder how many parents and grandparents say as your child is getting on the school bus or being dropped off by you: In the name of Jesus, protect my child today at school.