You’re Guardian Angel Must Have Been Watching Over You
Growing up, I must have kept my guardian angel very busy. I have come to this conclusion because my mom seemed to say, “You’re Guardian Angel Must Have Been Watching Over You” after I got hurt, but I could have acquired worse injuries or escaped injury altogether. Whether it was falling off my bike, getting hung upside down in my grandma’s Dogwood tree, not getting bit by a coiled Copperhead, or not blowing up after mowing over our exposed gas line in the yard, these words always seemed to flow out of my mom’s mouth as a form of prayer of thanksgiving. Thanking her Heavenly Father above for watching over and protecting her son when it was beyond her realm to do so.
What Does The Bible Say About Guardian Angels?
Read Psalm 91:1-16; Matthew 18:1-10
Psalm 91
Both passages tell us that angels are a means by which God looks over and protects His people (Psalm 91:9-12; Matthew 18:10). Psalm 91 is a declaration of its writer. The author declares that He trusts the Lord, the Most High, to protect him from all harm (91:1-2). Another person speaks in the remaining verses, no doubt the one to which the author expressed his faith in God.
This new speaker complements and expands on the psalmist’s declaration in Psalm 91:1–2. In the remainder of the chapter, the speaker emphasizes that the Lord actively intervenes during times of difficulty and pain. This person reassures the psalmist, affirming that the Lord will deliver him from hidden dangers and suffering because He is personally invested in the well-being of His people and the glory of His name. One of the ways the LORD protects His people is by ordering His angels to protect them wherever they go (Psalm 91:11).
Matthew 18
In Matthew 18:1-10, Jesus explains how we must come to Him with childlike faith and repent our sins to enter His kingdom. Humbling ourselves like children by recognizing our need for help in being made right with a holy God and coming to Jesus alone for that assistance supernaturally places us in the family of God. What began with childlike faith ends with becoming children of the faith.
Like any good father protects his children from harm, our good, good Heavenly Father does the same. Jesus explains that anyone who causes one of God’s children who trusts in Him to sin would be better off having a millstone tied around your neck before being thrown into the seas to drown. God will judge the world for tempting people to sin, but the text also supports the idea that God will discipline His children, which causes one of their brothers or sisters in Christ to stumble into sin. Jesus then uses hyperbole to stress the importance of ridding our lives of all the ways that our enemy uses to try and lure us into sin, as well as ways we are tempted to entice others to sin. Jesus gives a stark warning about looking at one of God’s own as inferior and not worthy of care (something the disciples just did by arguing who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven) and is what anyone who tries to lead the Father’s children into sin. In Jesus’ warning, we are reminded of one way God protects His kids: His angels.
Matthew 18:10
“Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.”
Angels are in the presence of God, beholding His face, awaiting any directive He may give them, including caring for His own (Hebrews 1:14). However, Jesus speaks of believers and their angels here in a collective sense, just like the writer of Psalm 91. Since Jesus and Psalm 91’s author are speaking in general terms, neither passage can be used to prove that each person has a single angel assigned to them as their guardian. Yet, the Bible does provide evidence that each of God’s children are not limited to a single protector angel (2 Kings 6:16-17; Matthew 4:11; 26:53). The pages of Scripture reveal that God uses angels to protect His children from harm. Still, none clearly state that we each have a single angelic protector who never leaves our side, even though Jewish tradition during Jesus’ day thought people did.
What Do We Learn from Psalm 91 and Matthew 18?
In both passages, we learn that God will protect His children. His love for us results in His protection of us from danger. Ultimately, His protective covering is experienced when we come under the sin covering made for us by Jesus. Jesus is our refuge and place of safety from sin’s penalty, power, and one-day presence. It is in Christ that we are rescued from God’s coming day of judgment (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
While God’s protection is fully recognized in Jesus, He still protects His people here and now. Not only does He provide His protection through the truth of His Word, His people, and His Spirit, but even His angels, as seen here in these passages. We know without a doubt that God commands these heavenly beings to care for God’s people according to their needs, even protecting them from harm by judging those who harm or try to harm His children or delivering them from their schemes. Whether we each have a single angelic agent tasked with keeping us safe or not, we cannot be sure, but we never have to wonder if they aren’t busily and obediently watching over us according to our Heavenly Father’s instruction.
Life Application
Both passages teach us that we are valuable to our Heavenly Father. We protect the things valuable to us; how much more does God protect us – His children and His Son’s bride? God ministers to you the same way He ministered to His Unique Son, through His angelic servants (Matthew 4:11). He loves you as He loves Jesus. Think about that. As disciples of Jesus, we are dearly loved children of the Father who watches over us and protects us using everything in His arsenal to do so.
Secondly, angels are in the presence of God, beholding His face, and ready to obey whatever He tells them. When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He told them to ask that their Father’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). The Holy Spirit always challenges me with the scene of angels simply hearing the Father’s commands and acting on them without hesitation and with their all when I hear this line of the Lord’s prayer. Their example is one we ought to strive to emulate. When God prompts me to do something, I ought to do it just like His angelic servants. To obey my Heavenly Father in this way, I must practice being in His presence with a mindful eye and listening ear so I don’t miss any directions given to me and carry them out like a willing and loving servant like the countless angels.
A Simple Prayer
Father, thank You for being the LORD of Hosts and Heaven’s Armies. I thank You for being my Protector (Psalm 18:2-4), my banner (Exodus 17:15-16) in ways unseen through your guardian angels. Help me rest in this truth. Amen.
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Do you have any questions about angels or the Bible you’d like >SM to answer? If so, leave them in the comments below. I am also simply learning and following Jesus like anyone else, so I also welcome your biblical insight. Your questions and insights help me grow in my faith as I search the Scriptures for God’s answers.
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