Skip to main content

Thursday Devotion: Broken walls (Nehemiah 1-3, 1 Cor. 14:34 - 40)

By

Broken walls are not uncommon. In Nehemiah, it was the broken wall of Jerusalem. Without the wall, the enemies entered with ease and no resistance. The Israelites lived in fear. 

In Corinthians, it was the wall of unity and worship. This was in bad shape. Thus, Paul's words sounded harsh and often misunderstood. It was every person for themselves, abusing the spiritual gifts, using them as a trophy for self-glorification. And in today's reading, we often interpret it as Paul disallowing women to speak in church. This is not so. This was for the church in Corinthians only, not something to be applied to all churches. The women had added to the confusion and disorder in worship. In simple terms, the wall of unity and worship was broken and required repair. Here the believers lived in pride and comparison, fighting for attention. Paul reached out as God's apostle to mend the wall.

The epistle to the Corinthians must be remembered as first and foremost a pastoral letter.

Pastorally, this is the question- what wall in your life or your family or your church or others is broken and needs repair? What is broken?

Let's begin by looking at my own life. My trust in God, my relationship with another person, or a deep personal pain? Bring it to God in prayer, seek His word out to bring healing to this brokenness, or speak to a godly leader.

Secondly, what is broken in the life of people we love? In Nehemiah, each household built a wall in front of their house. We can do something to repair the wall. It is often near and accessible and doable to us. A prayer, a word of love and encouragement, forgiveness, or choosing acceptance. What you can do may seem small, do it anyway. Each act is likened to a brick. When we keep doing it, we mend a broken wall.

Don't leave the wall broken, otherwise, we don't just become believers that are broken but we surrender Christ's precious victory in my life to the enemy. Let God repairs the broken wall.

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, you are the God who builds a wall of protection and unity over my life. Forgive me that I have neglected the wall or even contributed to breaking it. Come and help me rebuild this wall again, in my life, in my relationship, in the church, and in people I love. Amen

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Danger of Spiritual Infancy (Hebrews 5:11 - 6:12)

By
Have you met people who refuse to grow up? There are some adults who prefer to remain as children because they do not want to take on adult responsibilities. Not only is immature behaviour unpleasant to observe or deal with, the consequences are often destructive. In Hebrews 5:11-14, the writer expresses his frustration that some members of the church were refusing to grow into spiritual maturity. They were no longer trying to understand God’s word (v 11). Instead of taking on the responsibility of teaching others as they themselves had been taught, they needed to be taught the basics all over again (v12). Therefore, they were unable to take on “solid food” which is for mature Christians, and they were not able to distinguish good from evil (v14) or to understand teaching about righteousness (v13). Spiritual maturity is a necessary part of our walk with God. Remaining as a spiritual infant means that you are not good at discerning right from wrong and you will have a hard time maintain
Post a Comment
Read more

22 Sep 2020 - Isaiah 54 : GOD’S PROMISE FOR FRUITFULNESS AND BLESSING

By
Daily Devotion Tuesday 22nd September  Isaiah 54 – GOD’S PROMISE FOR FRUITFULNESS AND BLESSING    This scripture is a beautiful promise of encouragement and affirmation to God’s people. If you have served God faithfully, but you feel discouraged, if you feel that your effort thus far has not borne any fruit, if you feel that you have been despised or looked down upon, this promise is for you.    God tells the “barren woman” to sing and shout for joy, because God will give her the desire of her heart and gift her with more children than she can imagine (v1). This is a prophecy for the increase and expansion of the nation of Israel through the birth of many children, and a promise that the city would be rebuilt. The barren woman could also mean a person or a church that is feeling discouraged, unfulfilled or foolish. Perhaps you feel foolish and discouraged for putting your trust in God for so long, but you have not experienced the results that you expected? If you are feeling discourage
Post a Comment
Read more

A prophet prophesies and the church fully obeys (Acts 11:27- 12:4)

By
During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. 12 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. When Jewish believers from Cyprus (Europe) and Cyrene (Liby
Post a Comment
Read more