Deeper Life #243

The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

—Psalm 34:7

IN THE SUBCONSCIOUS REALM OF our lives, embraced by our sleep, is the ministry of angels. As so often is the case, our children’s hymns are nearer the truth than the speculations of philosophers. When we were taught that angels guarded our beds and watched over us and ministered to us, we were not being told a fairy story; we were being told a fact that has been revealed in the Bible: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14).

Angels nowadays rarely materialize; therefore, we do not see them with our bodily eyes or feel them with our bodily consciousness. But the ineffable refreshing and intuitive sense of security that merges around our lives at times surely rises from these garrison soldiers of God.

Can you imagine the unspeakable danger of a soul unguarded by God, to whom the unconscious hours of sleep are open to the subtle onslaught of Satan? Being guarded within and without by the Spirit of God, the terrors by night and the destruction that wasteth at noonday have no part in the life of the saint. The ungodly are not shielded from them by their unconsciousness, except by the prayers of their godly friends. This ought to awaken terror in the hearts of those who are living a self-satisfied life, unyielded to God.

Prayer Thought: Lord, I appreciate the ministry of Your angels and the protective care they are to Christians.

SUGGESTED READING: Psalm 34:1–8