Sharing a piece of my heart today
through an excerpt from my upcoming book, Holy His: Hope for a Life and a
Nation Wholly His. Coming home from a conference for moms, pumped up with
inspiration and great intentions and challenged to be more intentional in discipling
my children’s hearts, I am on guard, knowing the devil doesn’t normally sit
back idly while the Lord sanctifies. I am ready for battle!
The moment you determine in your heart
and actions to be holy as He is holy, you can be sure the devil is going to
come against you to steal, kill, and destroy what the Lord determines to
bestow, breathe new life into, repair, renew, and restore. We see this in
Nehemiah. As soon as he and the Jews start rebuilding the wall around
Jerusalem, their enemies become “furious and indignant” and mock them (Neh.
4:1). Sanballat, the ring leader of the bunch, says: “What are these feeble
Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they
complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish –
stones that are burned?” (Neh. 4:2). In the same way, as we rebuild the walls
in our lives through obedience, the enemy is mocking us, saying: “What is this
feeble Christian doing? Will he or she actually obey? Will they do what the
word of God tells them to do? Will they set aside their flesh and become holy?
Will they really believe God and His promises to them?” Let the answer be yes!
Nehemiah’s unwavering faith in God,
obedience, and firm stand against his enemies bring great success in rebuilding
the wall around Jerusalem. His surrendered advancement toward the goal the Lord
puts before him, no matter what is going on around him, position him for
victory over his enemies. He is able to recognize their scheming tactics, and
he will not be diverted from God’s plan and purpose for his life. I love how
Nehemiah firmly plants himself in the will of God, trusting exclusively in Him,
and then confronts his enemies as he stays on task for the Lord. Here’s a quick
summary of this part of Nehemiah’s story and some great battle truths we can
apply as we fortify our path to holiness.
When the Jews build the wall, and the
entire wall is joined together up to half its height (Neh. 4:6), their enemies
become angry and conspire to attack. The Jews set watch day and night, but
Judah reports in Nehemiah 4:10, “The strength of the laborers is failing, and
there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.” The Jews are
feeling intimidated and discouraged because they have shifted their eyes from
the Lord to the rubbish around them, and the same thing will happen to us if we
take our eyes off the Lord and focus on the ruins left behind by our sin and
disobedience.
TRUTH: The enemy
will use this rubbish to destroy our resolve, so we must keep our eyes fixed on
Jesus. We must heed the words of Nehemiah in verse fourteen of chapter four:
“Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for
your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” We must
take our eyes off the things the enemy uses to distract us and focus on the
greatness of God! The fight is worth it when we realize it’s for more than just
ourselves – it truly is for our children, our families, our friends and neighbors,
our co-workers, and so on.
Fortunately, God brings their enemies’
plot to nothing, and having returned their focus to rebuilding the wall, “those
who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that
with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon”
(Neh. 4:17). Don’t miss this! The Jews rebuilding the wall arm themselves as they rebuild!
Sword in hand, I’m ready to rebuild!
Lord, I ask You in Jesus’ name to
bring to nothing the enemy’s schemes against me, my family, every person reading
this, and their families. I thank you that we fight from victory, not for it,
as we become more wholly Yours today.
Tune in Thursday for more!
Shauna Wallace
Holy His
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