He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will sayb of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the Lord, who is my refuge— then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
A dear friend and Christian mentor taught me how to pray scripture many years ago, and Psalm 91 is one I have prayed over our family ever since. I want the kind of protection for us that it talks about, so I ask God daily for it. The assurance that I have prayed this kind of powerful promise from God keeps me from living in fear that something bad is lurking around every corner to harm my family. Actually, I know that Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10) and that he prowls around like a lion seeking whom he may destroy (1 Peter 5:8), so in truth, he IS around every corner. But my God and His word are stronger (1 John 4:4 and Revelation 12:11). My God provides the 91st Psalm and others with which we can speak protection over our families and defeat the work of the enemy.
Though I am secure in God’s marvelous blanket of covering over our family, I don’t want to take it for granted. At times I think it’s good to stop and imagine exactly the kinds of things he protects us from every day. The things we never experience because He keeps them far from us. The things that never touch our family because He keeps them at bay.
There are a million and one diseases of varying severities that our family has never had to deal with. Thank you, Lord, for the way You created our bodies to fight infection and disease.
How many accidents have we avoided that the enemy would have loved to use to destroy us? Lord, it is only because of Your great covering that we aren’t consumed by accidents at home, in public, at friends’ homes, at work, and in the car.
Lord, for the fact that we are free from hunger and thirst, we give thanks to You and You alone. So many in the world don’t have that luxury.
Lord, you have so kept us from abuse, cruelty, and meanness from the hands of others. We’ve never had to deal with this terrifying situation that is reality for so many. We know that if Satan was to have his way with us, this would be our reality, too.
Dear sisters in Christ, please don’t for a minute think that just because I pray Psalm 91 over my family that nothing bad will ever happen to us. And don’t think that we’ve never experienced anything bad in our lives – God knows that we’ve experienced our own share of bad times. God says rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous, the just and the unjust alike (Matthew 5:45). Bad things happen to everybody. But there is power in praying God’s scripture over your families that we don’t have relying on our own power and strength. And we never, ever know the extent to which God’s protection has covered us from things we never even saw coming.
Thank you, Lord!
Check out our other posts about praying scripture:
Praying Scripture for Our Husbands and Children
Praying Scripture for Healing
[…] have discussed Praying Scripture for Your Family’s Protection (Psalm 91) and Praying Scripture for Our Husbands and Children. Today I want to give you some scriptures to […]