History shows us hard times breed discouragement. 75,000 of our spiritual ancestors found themselves in hard times in the book of Nehemiah. The wall surrounding their city had crumbled, one brick at a time, from the neglect of regular maintenance. It could no longer protect them. As a result, the entire city had fallen apart. With the wall a mess, roads, businesses, schools, and politics were in a mess.
The wall is a symbol of spiritual health. The spiritual health was as sick as their city and for the same reason — the neglect of regular maintenance.
Times were really hard. Remember the pandemic winter of January 2020? That’s what we’re talking about.
The people rallied behind the leadership of a regular guy named Nehemiah. He organized the people and got them working together. The people had a heart and mind to work!
Discouragement sets in as the work reaches the halfway point.
The media of the day conspired a smear campaign that demoralized the workers to the point the entire project was at risk of failing!
The will to work evaporated as fear raced through the workers when the project was about to be overrun by mercenaries.
Discouragement overcome!
Nehemiah once again rallied the people with, “Don’t be afraid of them, remember the LORD who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” Nehemiah 4:15
I can imagine hundreds of households returning to the spiritual practices of family prayer, of reading Bible stories to their children, and moms and dads praying for their kids, neighbors, and country.
As the wall began to be repaired so too the spiritual fibre of the people.
In his journal, Nehemia wrote, “The workers went at it with one hand on a shovel and the other hand on a sword.”
Swords and Shovels for today
SWORDS
Return to the basics of daily prayer as a desperate man.
Read a chapter a day in your Bible.
Get yourself and your family back to church.
Focus more on our powerful God and less on the news and social media.
Become aggressive with optimism anchored in hope.
SHOVELS
In your heart, home, and world figure out what needs your attention, a tune-up, or an overhaul and get after it with everything you’ve got.
Craft a plan and work it together.
Do the work — one brick at a time.
As I write I am reminded of the wise words attributed to Solomon:
I walked by the field of a man, the vineyard of one lacking sense. I saw that it was overgrown with thorns. It was covered with weeds, and its walls were broken down. Then, as I looked and thought about it, I learned this lesson: A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — and poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like a robber. Proverbs 24:30-34
Brother, hand me another brick.
Pray
Help me get sick and tired of being sick and tired, of waking up with either an emotional or physical hangover. Help me get back the rhythm of saying “no” to those life sucking things I’ve been saying “yes” to. Help me rebuild what I’ve neglected. And as we do this — one man at a time, we can rebuild the fabric of our churches and our country.
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