There are always those seasons of life that leave you feeling exhausted. You feel as though there is no way you can pray that prayer or carry that load or sing that worship song one more time. When the enemy’s taunts seem to drown out the voice of truth, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome” (Nehemiah 4:14).
These words of Nehemiah were spoken after he had led a group of exiles to rebuild the city walls in Jerusalem. Spiritual warfare often feels quite as difficult as I imagine building a wall to be. In Nehemiah 4, as the men built, their enemies hurled taunts and insults at them repeatedly. That sounds so familiar. Sometimes we are trying to push forward through the storm, while the enemy keeps hurling dart after dart our way. We feel like we can lay one brick of truth before he crushes three bricks with lies.
However, we don’t have to try to build alone. Nehemiah and the exiles didn’t try to supersede one another in their wall building, they worked together, using the unique gifts God gave each of them to work as one to advance the wall.
We see in Nehemiah 4:21 that as the men labored, “half of them held spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out”. The purpose of half of the men was not to work, but to simply stand in the gap to face the enemy so that the others could make progress. Philippians 2:3 tells us, “count other more significant than yourselves”.
This is a picture of unity in the power of Christ through community. We are called to community to be gap standards. When the enemy taunts us with lies or the load feels too heavy or you can’t seem to muster up one more prayer for what you are believing God for. Look up, reach out, and let your community stand in the gap for you.
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” -Galatians 6:2
- Morgan Easley
These words of Nehemiah were spoken after he had led a group of exiles to rebuild the city walls in Jerusalem. Spiritual warfare often feels quite as difficult as I imagine building a wall to be. In Nehemiah 4, as the men built, their enemies hurled taunts and insults at them repeatedly. That sounds so familiar. Sometimes we are trying to push forward through the storm, while the enemy keeps hurling dart after dart our way. We feel like we can lay one brick of truth before he crushes three bricks with lies.
However, we don’t have to try to build alone. Nehemiah and the exiles didn’t try to supersede one another in their wall building, they worked together, using the unique gifts God gave each of them to work as one to advance the wall.
We see in Nehemiah 4:21 that as the men labored, “half of them held spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out”. The purpose of half of the men was not to work, but to simply stand in the gap to face the enemy so that the others could make progress. Philippians 2:3 tells us, “count other more significant than yourselves”.
This is a picture of unity in the power of Christ through community. We are called to community to be gap standards. When the enemy taunts us with lies or the load feels too heavy or you can’t seem to muster up one more prayer for what you are believing God for. Look up, reach out, and let your community stand in the gap for you.
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” -Galatians 6:2
- Morgan Easley
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