Preserved by God —
What Does that Mean?

Marilyn LaStrape

A sister in the faith recently spoke at the 75th Ladies’ Day program of a local congregation. In her biographical sketch, she stated that her favorite Scripture was 2 Timothy 4:18. This verse reads, “And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!” Upon reading this verse, it brought to mind Psalm 40:11, “Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O LORD; let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.”

W.E. Vine’s Concise Dictionary of Bible Words defines “preserve” as guarding, protecting and keeping. When those verbs are used to describe the actions of Jehovah God, they express the ability and power of the Father of mercies and God of all comfort beyond what we can ask or think. However, God’s guarding, protecting and keeping us is predicated upon our willingness to surrender our desires, our emotions, our intellect and our will to His divine and sovereign control!

What does it mean to be preserved by God? For the Almighty to guard, protect and keep us, some of the things we must do are:

• Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This simply means we are to live in a thoughtful, prayerful mode as we go through our day. It means that God is at the forefront of our subconscious thoughts; we are keenly aware of the essence of His presence. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6-7 that we are to be anxious for nothing as we make our requests known to God. He then tells us that the peace of God that surpasses understanding will “guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” This guarding of our heart involves our emotions and the guarding of our mind involves our thoughts. This kind of peace that comes only from God is priceless. It will never be found in a doctor’s prescription!

• Ask for God’s lovingkindness. David humbly asked in Psalm 143:8, “Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You.” What was David saying? He was asking for God’s sympathetic thoughtfulness and consideration. How reassuring to know that God understands how frail and weak we are; He knows that we are dust (Psalm 103:14). In this kindness of God, there is a saving power to those who obey Him. Titus 3:3-5 says, “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, but when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared… He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

• Abide in God’s truth as it has been revealed. “The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth” (Psalm 145:18). Our lives must line up with God’s standard of right and wrong. What we think, how we feel, what we believe is totally irrelevant when God’s Word speaks, because it is true and righteous altogether. Jesus prayed shortly before His death, “Sanctify them by Your truth, Your word is truth” (John 17:17).

• Rely on God’s strength to deliver us from evil. Vine’s defines evil as that which is destructive and injurious, naughtiness and badness in quality. In the model prayer, our Lord commanded us to pray to be delivered from the evil one (Matthew 6:13). We must recognize Satan as our perilous foe whose goal is our spiritual destruction! Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:1-3 that we all were once under the power of Satan and were by nature children of wrath. We are naughty by our self-willed, sinful nature! In his book, Studies in Ephesians, R.C. Bell writes, “Human nature is so distorted and thrown off balance that man cannot right himself. God must redeem him from his sins and from himself by a spiritual birth from above.” God is the only one who can give us protection and discernment between good and evil. We have this blessed assurance in Psalm 121:7-8, “The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.”

Throughout Scripture, the blessed assurance we have of God’s guarding, protecting and keeping us is overwhelming. David expressed his ever-present trust and confidence in God’s power to preserve in Psalm 5:11-12, “But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; let those also who love Your name be joyful in You. For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield.” As children of God, we need to be thanking Him every day for His continual provision and protection.

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