Shielded by God's Power

". . . This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:4b-5)

Shielded by God's power

Those words struck me when I read them recently. I think they would have been significant to the original recipients of Peter's letter, just as they are today.

Peter's original recipients were Christians who had been scattered by persecution. They not only needed the reminder of their inheritance to come, the also needed this reminder that God's power shielded, or protected, them. In the midst of circumstances that left then vulnerable and attacked, this would have been a needed encouragement.

While we may not be facing the physical threat these Christians were, we often dealing with a different attack. It can leave us feeling vulnerable. We, too, are shielded by God's power.

Sometimes we don't feel very shielded. I think Peter's original recipients would have felt much the same way. They were still facing persecution and hard times. We still face hard times in our lives.

But, I don't think Peter was speaking of a physical shielding here - not an emotional one either. Peter's words were about being shielded by God's power come in the middle of a section talking about a spiritual inheritance. He's looking beyond the physical.

In the midst of attacks on our spiritual lives, we are shielded by God's power. This is a spiritual protection. We will still know of the attacks our enemy is launching at us, but as long as we choose to come under God's shielding power in those times, we will experience God's protection from those attacks.

This is our choice. We choose, in faith, to place ourselves under God's shield. We choose to hide ourselves under it.