I watched the news this morning and went to my local grocery store. I could easily have been seized by fear, anxiety, or sadness. I made the choice not to do that. In troubling times we have a greater tendency to let outside forces and circumstances dictate the direction we are pointed in. I choose the direction of my True North (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and look inward. It is there I remember that I am seized by a great affection. As soon as I take my eyes and attention off of circumstances and look inwardly I hear the Holy Spirit whispering the great truths of Jesus into me: I am sooooo loved, cherished, and intimately cared for with a tender and fiercely protective love. I marvel at that and my heart soars in freedom and safety. I am so filled to bursting with love and peace that there isn’t much room left for anxiety. If you happen to be thinking that that is nice for me, I’m here to tell you that I don’t have any insider information that you don’t already have. His affections are the same for you as they are for me. Only God could make each of us feel like we are the apple of His eye. The fact that He feels all the same things toward you that He does toward me in no way whatsoever diminishes the wonder and completeness of it for any of us. Choose. The more you allow yourselves to be filled with His truth, the less room there will be for anything else. Sounds so simple, right? It really is and that’s why we always have such a hard time with Him…….because it all seems to good to be true. But it is good and it is true. You and I are outrageously loved by a Good, Good Father. He has more love for us than we could ever fathom or hold (but it sure is the best adventure ever to make more room for it all). All you have to do is choose it and allow it.

Some of you might be thinking….c’mon Kris, give us something practical to do to get through all this. Coming right up! Let’s take a look at Nehemiah. If you are unfamiliar with the book of Nehemiah, here is a little background. The southern kingdom of Judah was enduring captivity by Persia but because of the faithfulness of God, King Cyrus allowed some of the Jews (sort of a nickname for the people of Judah….that stuck!) to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and begin to worship there again. The walls of the city, however, still lay in ruins. The walls had to be rebuilt if Jerusalem was so survive. God raised up Nehemiah for that task.

*I’m getting just a bit excited here. Take this story, and like a magic transparency, lay it over our current situation. God always has a plan and He always calls His people to rise to meet Him in the plan.

Nehemiah gets sent to Jerusalem to work on the wall and man, does he get things going quickly! Opposition arose against the work of restoration. Others plotted against Nehemiah (perhaps seized with fear, anxiety, and sadness??) and tried to get Nehemiah to come down off the wall for a meeting. Listen to Nehemiah’s reply in chapter 6: 3+4NIV, “so I sent messages to them with this reply: ‘I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?’ Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.”

We don’t know how long we will he held in captivity by COVID-19. We will be spending a lot more time at home. There will be a lot less activities vying for our attention. I believe that God is calling us, much as He did with Nehemiah, to work on restoration and fortification. I don’t know what your wall will look like. Perhaps He is calling you up onto the wall to restore your marriage. Perhaps He is calling you up onto the wall to restore and build into your children. Perhaps He is calling you to the wall to make room in your heart for Him and only Him. Perhaps He is calling you to the wall to restore others. It could be lots of things but the time to get up there and build is now. There will be opposition and you may very well be seized by fear, anxiety, or sadness more than the 4 or 5 times Nehemiah was asked to come down but let us with a loud voice declare to the fears that, we too have a great work to do in this time of captivity and we will not come down from the places that God has called us to. We have too much to do to stop for distractions.

Eventually this crisis will pass. There will be much rebuilding to do. What can you and I do to fortify and grow strong today? We can choose to be seized by a great affection…..that of Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides.

Who’s going to let their hearts be filled to bursting with His extravagant, saving, tender, healing love that He longs to give you this very day? I’ll see you up on the wall. Let’s build.