Protection, not removal

“My prayer is not that You take them out of the world, but that You protect them from the evil one.” John 17:15
In John 17, after praying for His glorification, Jesus prays for His disciples, and all who would come to faith after them. That means He is praying for us! In verse 15, He points out that He does not want them to be removed from the world, but that they would be protected from Satan. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we become part of another kingdom, not of this world. We pass from being citizens of the world, to trespassers. We are in enemy territory.
Some will ask, ‘Why does God save people, and then allow them to face persecution and hardship – He’s risking that they might turn their backs on Him and go back to the world.’ But if everyone who believed in Christ were immediately raptured to be with the Lord, then how would anyone else be saved? There would be no-one who knew the truth, who could pass it on to others. We are called the salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13). We are the preserving influence in the world.
Instead of asking to take us out of the world, Jesus asks the Father to protect us. Sometimes it might not feel that way, when everything is falling down around us and things are going from bad to worse. But everything that does come against us, God has okayed. He will not let us be tested more than we can bear (1 Cor. 10:13).
So, we are in this for the long haul – until the rapture, or until the Lord takes us home individually. But we will be protected while we are here.