Are Christians Automatically Protected From Evil?

Earlier this week someone from the Bible study that I lead each Wednesday sent me a question. I felt like it was "blogworthy" so I've decided to post the question and my response.

Hey there.. I have a Bible question for you. I've heard it said (not sure if it's Biblical or not), that nothing comes to us except by God... meaning that even the devil can't really touch us unless God allows... Hmm, just had a different question come to mind..
If the devil can't touch us unless as a child of God, God allows it, like Job, can the devil instead, affect others that are not of God's children to then have an effect on us? Thereby, "skirting" the issue? Is this "Spiritual warfare"? Thanks for your thoughts

This is quite the complex question. At the root of what I believe about God and His character, which is love, I think it boils down to free will. God has always created and given free will to his created beings. This includes angels, of whom Satan was one at one time. This leaves us open to what I see as oppression or attack from an evil source. I believe that possession happens to those willing to dabble with and openly communicate with evil spirits, i.e. demons. Thus their heart is open to being overwhelmed by evil.

The bigger question might be "Why doesn't God step in, when one of his believing creations are being attacked spiritually or physically?" That is a question which is extremely tough to figure out an answer for.

I was reading through a book that referenced scripture from Luke 4:38,39 addressing this very idea.  

"Jesus ministered to Simon's mother-in-law, who was afflicted with a high fever. The text says Jesus rebuked the fever. Interestingly, Luke used the exact same word in verse 35 to describe Christ's response to a man afflicted with an evil spirit. Luke, the observant physician, is not saying that every fever is caused by an evil spirit, but this one was. In our fallen world, the stuff of hell sometimes gets splattered on us. Simon's mother-in-law obviously was a godly woman, because as soon as she was released from the fever she got up at once and began to serve her house guests. But in spite of her godliness, she was being affected by a demonic spirit, and Jesus dealt with the situation."

I've dealt with real spiritual warfare and I can tell you that it's a scary thing to see and experience. I think it can be easy to get distracted by (and that's the devil's goal) evil in this world so much that we begin to doubt God because we're hurt or in the midst of suffering. It's only once He's pulled us through that circumstance(when we allow Him to do this), that we see He was there all along and fully in control of the situation.