Angels? Really Now
But while he thought, the angel of the Lord appeared. (Matt. 1:20)
Matt. 1:20; Ps. 19:14; Ps. 39:3, 104:34; Ps. 91:11; Acts 12:7; I Tim 4:15 KN; Acts 27:23; Heb. 1:14
What Is God Saying?
Angels are for real. God sends them to help us. They are meant to keep and guard us in all our ways. Not here and there, not now and then, but always in all our ways.
Peter was in prison. An angel of the Lord said, ‘Get up quickly,’ and the chains fell off his hands. Belonging to and serving God (Acts 27:23) means that God has an angel standing by us. It comes with the territory. Joseph saw the angel of the Lord when he was in great perplexity. Guidance from that angel came in his deepest hour of need—another case of man's extremity is God's opportunity. God often sends a ministering angel when we reach the end of our rope or the end of our hope.
How Does This Apply To Us?
Psalm 91:11 reminds us that we cannot go along in any way for God without the presence and help of a ministering angel from God. Many may scoff at this, but we can draw strength from it. We trust that in true meditation, the angels of God stand nearby. When an angel of the Lord tells us to get up and get going, we are given the freedom to do it. Peter's experience in prison demonstrates that when we are held in bondage to anything, God can and will (if we believe) lift us and set us free.
Pray With Me
O God, I thank You for all great and glowing thoughts. As every good and perfect gift comes from You, all thoughts of pure love and unblemished beauty are Yours to give and ours to enjoy. Forgive me that too often:
• I have seen Your right and thought wrong,
• I have seen Your beauty and thought ugliness,
• I have seen Your faithful provision and thought anxiety,
• I have seen Your gift of a second chance and thought revenge.
Help me to see Your thoughts expressed in all that is good and true and beautiful, and beyond all this, give me the grace of some ministering angel to turn my thoughts toward the right and to shield my thoughts from the wrong. Yes, with Joseph, even in times of perplexity and deep concern, may my thoughts be so centered on Your unfailing goodness that meditation shall be a heavenly ladder down which angels of light and mercy may come. O God, keep my thoughts so holy and loving that the appearing of angels may not seem strange nor their message go unheard.
In the name of Jesus, who also knew the grace of ministering angels. Amen.
Moving On In The Life Of Prayer
Copley Square, Boston, has a statue that gives a silent but eloquent witness. It portrays Phillips Brooks, a great preacher of the 19th century, looking out across the busy traffic circle. In the shadows behind him is a slightly elevated figure that can be easily identified as Christ. One hand reaches out to rest gently on the shoulder of His faithful servant, Phillips Brooks. Similarly, a nearby angel ministers to us and guards us and sometimes, as with Peter, strikes us to get us up and get us going. When things go well, and life is at its exhilarating best, when things are very humdrum, and life is painfully commonplace, when we have reached the end of our rope, perplexed, bewildered, and void of hope, think about this:
God has an angel for you to keep you in all your ways.
Remember, ‘while he (Joseph) thought, the angel appeared.’ Pray faithfully. Angels are nearer than we think and never too busy or too late.
