The Bible is full of promises regarding God’s protection of His people, but Hosea 2:6-7 reveals a way the Lord protects sinners: “Therefore, behold, I will … wall her in, So that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers, But not overtake them; Yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, For then it was better for me than now’” (NKJV). That is good news for our prodigals and for those of us who love them, that God will hedge them in and keep them from sinful paths.

I want to quote a bit from my book, Trust God As (His Names and Attributes for Your Journey with a Prodigal):

“Our prayers help cause our prodigals to be hedged in protection. Our prayers make a difference: ‘And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it’” (Ezekiel 22:30 KJV). Our prayers are effect and fervent! (James 5:16)” (Winkelman, Trust God As, p. 86).

These are the walls that work: the hedge placed by God and our standing in the gap.

Continuing the quote reveals the walls that don’t work:

“On a side note, the converse is true about the walls our prodigals build to keep God out of their lives. Those walls cannot keep God from permeating them. Remember that the wall of Jericho could not keep God’s people out of their city? He can permeate any wall they erect” (Winkelman, Trust God As, p. 86).

These are the walls that don’t work.

Some evidence given in Scripture that proves God permeates the walls they erect are these promises:

• “A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).
• “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand” (Proverbs 19:21 KJV).
• “[F]or it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
• “All your children shall be taught by the LORD” (Isaiah 54:13).

The walls the Lord builds are impenetrable by the enemy, but the walls the enemy builds are not strong enough to keep God from reaching them.

God’s walls work; Satan’s don’t.

(For further scriptural reading demonstrating that no walls can keep God out, read Psalm 139:1-12).