We are not alone

by Tami Rudkin
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 2:43 PM MDT

He rode on the hood of the car and, by his very presence, seemed to be steering through a blizzard on a dangerous stretch of icy highway.

He came from nowhere to offer water to a thirsty woman stranded in the hot Arizona desert.

Dressed in a pink volunteer’s uniform, she leaned close to a man experiencing the horrific ordeal of a heart attack and reassuringly repeated, “By his stripes you are healed.”

Angels. Do you believe in angels?

Are they here right now experiencing our lives with us? Or do they visit us only occasionally?

Does each of us have a guardian angel that is like an ever-present attendant? What do they know about us? Can they work without our permission?

Can they perform only in God’s perfect timing? Are angels trumpeting messengers? Warring protectors? Warm encouragers? Simple hearted do-gooders?

A million questions form in my mind as I consider angels.

The answers to most of our questions can be found in the history of God, for angels are mentioned more than 300 times in the Bible.

In II Kings, we are told how the king of Syria had dispatched a whole army to Dothan. God’s prophet, Elisha, was there and the king fully intended to stop Elisha once and for all.

The whole countryside was covered with this mighty Syrian army and its deadly implements of war. How frightened Elisha should have been, for his capture seemed imminent.

But Elisha saw with eyes that beheld the mighty provision of God. Covering the hillside were fiery horses and chariots and angels. The Syrian troops were no match for God’s appointed army.

Likewise, our battle is as real. We are at war with evil that craves our spiritual destruction. The countryside is filled with demonic forces ... we are surrounded and sometimes we even give way to them.

We sometimes fall so short. We wonder if we can fight this fight.

We are strongly cautioned to not give the devil a foothold (Eph 4:27). We are advised to be sober, to be vigilant, because our adversary the devil is like a roaring lion seeking to devour us (I Peter 5:8), and we are instructed to resist the devil (James 4:7).

Yet at times, we question our strength, our ability to engage in such a battle. And, that’s when we must cling to the promises we find in scripture, that God’s angelic forces go before us and behind us; that they enclose us completely.

Always by the instruction of God, angels stand ready to work God’s loving way in our lives.

God has never left us to fend for ourselves. Besides the Holy Spirit who dwells within to counsel and instruct us, the scriptures tell us that his angels protect us, warn us, relay messages of hope and minister to us when we are hurting and defeated.

They actually deliver us when the enemy closes in.

We are not alone! Angels represent yet another reality that our God is a God of love and that he is constantly at work in our lives.

When life seems tough, I will think of hospital volunteers and joy-riding angels and know that I too am surrounded by his forces and that I am safe in his hands.

(Larry and Linda Kloster sponsor this column.)

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