When We Pray for Protection . . . .

Mary & I went to see the movie, End of the Spear, Friday evening. I had seen it before, but Mary had not. We were both inspired by this amazing story of faith and obedience. It was one of those movies that left us with a heaviness.
Later that evening I drove by my study at church to get a book that had been part of my library for a long time. It was Elizabeth Elliott's book, The Savage Are My Kinsman (published by Harper & Brothers, New York). Elizabeth's husband, Jim, was one of the missionaries who was murdered by the Aucas.
Cornell Capa wrote the forward for that book. He had been asked by Life magazine in 1956 to fly to Ecuador and find out what happened to the five missionaries who lost their lives there. In his Forward there is a telling conversation with Elizabeth Elliott that put me in reflection mode. It redefines protection. Cornell Capa wrote: "I wondered how Betty could reconcile Jim's death at the hands of the Aucas and the Lord's apparent failure to protect him from them. Her answer came back without hesitation: 'I prayed for the protection of Jim, that is, physical protection. The answer the Lord gave transcended what I had in mind. He gave protection from disobedience and through Jim's death accomplished results the magnitude of which only Eternity can show'" (page 13-14).
How many times have you prayed for protection for you or someone else, and thought of being protected from disobeying God? It doesn't take much reflection to realize that praying for protection from disobedience is a far higher priority than praying for protection from physical harm. It is one more way to transform our thinking to interpret life's events with Eternity's values in mind.