Good morning,
"Now it came to pass when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;) That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief." (Neh. 6:1-2) I have been thinking about how when we are busy living for God, how the enemy will not just leave us alone. He is like Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, tormenting and taunting us with all kinds of "little foxes" and some not so little to try and get our minds off of God and His promises to us. Notice that Nehemiah had closed all the breaches [gaps or broken places], around the walls of Jerusalem. We, like Nehemiah are called to repair the broken and open places in our lives and our families, to stop giving the enemy access into our lives, to steal, kill, and destroy. "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." (Is.58:12) Build [establish; cause to continue; to rebuild walls to last;temples] those places in our lives and in the lives of our family that are in ruins. We came to God that way, in ruins, wasted! Yet look at us now, we have come a mighty long way, right? This should encourage us to continue to build to last. Raise up [become powerful; to maintain, confirm, to fix to endure]. We are fixing up to be able to endure and become more powerful in our generation and for generations to come. We build and raise up the broken places and the gaps in our lives as we lean upon the Word of God. We learn by practicing, walking in love, extending mercy and forgiveness, breaking the cycles of sin, speaking truly, believing the promises of God to us, rebuking the enemy at every turn, never quitting, this is our building, this is our closing and repairing the breaches. Restorer [to refresh, repair in order to turn back to] of paths, where we are to travel on, the highway to heaven. We have the greatest help, the precious Holy Spirit comes alongside us and gives us all the grace necessary in order to fulfill this part of our destiny. It is not by our power, except the power to yield to His work in us! As long as we work with the Repairer and the Restorer, we will not fail. You may feel like you have not built very much, but lining up with the Master builder we will be doing a great work. "According to the grace (the special endowment for my task) of God bestowed on me, like a skillful architect and master builder I laid [the] foundation, and now another [man] is building upon it. But let each [man] be careful how he builds upon it, For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)." (1 Corin. 3:10-11) We are building upon a firm foundation. As we bind up all breaches, we will bring our lives and those of our family, back to God's way, back to His paths. Let us not give any place to the devil, let us continue building in order to close all gaps and openings. We will join Nehemiah in our response to the enemy of the work; "And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave to come down to you?" (Neh.6:3) Now that's giving no place to the devil!
Love,
Love,
Pastor D.
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