Woman at the Well Ministries

This Week's Devotion:


Closing the gaps
By Erika Klose
And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses. Nehemiah 4:14 The book of Nehemiah is one of my favorites because it deals with the Israelites re-building the walls of Jerusalem after returning home from captivity. The idea of building and re-building is important to me. When the Lord has us to build for Him, whether it be a ministry, a family, a church, or a marriage, we are in a special time, a time that needs to be protected and preserved. When we are building anything for the Lord, the devil will do anything to stop construction, to throw a snag into the plans. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (I Peter 5:8). When we are building, we need to work with our eyes open, vigilantly watching for any way the devil may sneak in. Nehemiah began building the wall in the midst of scorn and laughter. "Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king? Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem" (Nehemiah 2:17-20). When Nehemiah began to build in obedience to the Lord, outsiders laughed and scorned him, but he told them that they had no place in the re-building, just like the devil has no place in the things the Lord is building in your life. When the devil laughs or throws in discouragement, resist the temptation to be discouraged. "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). The devil may flee for a while, but we can be assured that when we are doing something good for the Lord, he will be back. Let's jump ahead to chapter 4 of Nehemiah. "But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews" (Nehemiah 4:1). Nehemiah is seeing success and the walls are being re-built, but those that mocked him, are very upset. What is Nehemiah's response? He prays and he keeps working. "Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity: And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before Thee: for they have provoked Thee to anger before the builders. So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work" (Nehemiah 4:4-6). The Lord strengthens the people and keeps them working. Unfortunately, Nehemiah's opposers are going to try again. "And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease" (Nehemiah 4:11). This time the plan is more sneaky. They plan to infiltrate the building project and cause it to fall from the inside. But the Lord lets Nehemiah know of this plan. And what does Nehemiah do? He sets people and families in every hole in the wall (Nehemiah 4:13). He reminds the people why they are building the walls, for the Lord and for protection for their families, wives, and children (Nehemiah 4:14). Nehemiah stops up every hole with a follower of God and he diligently makes sure that someone is always on watch, to the point that they don't even stop to wash their clothes (Nehemiah 4:23). He diligently and vigilantly stops up every place that his adversaries could get in. So in the building phases and stages of our lives, what are we to do? How can we stop the devil from infiltrating? We need to close all the gaps in our ministries, our families, our churches, our marriages - or whatever the Lord has us building. The devil walks about like a roaring lion (I Peter 5:8), but he is also sneaky and can easily weasel his way into our lives. But he cannot sneak in, when we are vigilantly watching. We need to protect those things that God has entrusted to us. We need to protect our ministries by not letting the devil distract us from the tasks the Lord has set before us. We need to protect our ministries by living transparent lives, keeping accountable to the Lord, and always displaying the love of God. We need to protect our families, by preserving family time, family bible study, and family prayer. We need to communicate as a family and keep the family as the utmost in importance. We need to protect our churches by keeping them ever mindful of the great commission, free from false doctrines, free from becoming more concerned with the comfort of the members than the salvation of the community, and free from forgetting to care for the widows, orphans, and the ill. We need to protect our marriages from wandering eyes and hearts, from a lack of communication that needs satisfaction elsewhere, and from excess time spent away from home. These just scratch the surface of the ways we need to protect our lives and hearts, but these are all ways that are easy for the devil to sneak in and get us. I think of the devil as a weasel who can sneak his way into any hole I leave open. We need to close up the gaps in our Christian lives, block off the holes where the devil can sneak in. I often hear the phrase, "don't give the devil an inch, or he'll be come your ruler". That's a true saying and one worthy of considering. When we give the devil a small amount of our time, our eyes, our ears, our hearts, or our thoughts, he can quickly weasel his way in and take the rest. Don't let the devil sneak his way into your life. Close the gaps! "And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses" (Nehemiah 4:14). Just as Nehemiah reminded his people that their lives and families were worth fighting for, let me remind you that we are in a constant battle with the devil, but our Christ-won lives, marriages, churches, families, and ministries are definitely worth fighting for!