Now is the Time to Stand!
Recently I have found myself using this phrase: “Now is the time to stand.” The concept of standing might sound passive as in “standing still” but that’s not how I mean it. The Prophet Isaiah captured the importance of standing in our faith: “If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all” (Isaiah 7:9b). One consistent message the Old Testament prophets sounded forth was the challenge to trust in the Lord and not in other gods or depend on other strategies to find refuge. In the case of Isaiah 7, Isaiah challenges King Ahaz to trust in the Lord. He refused to do so and instead looked for a human solution to his problems. He allied himself with the Assyrians of all people. To put it mildly, things do not go well for Ahaz. Who needs enemies if the Assyrians are your friends? All this happened because he refused to stand firm in the faith.
Why are we afraid to stand in our faith? Often we fear defeat and failure. That was Ahaz’s problem. He knew his enemy was strong so he sought something more substantial and concrete than trust in the Lord. Other times we fear that we will look foolish by trusting in the Lord. Sometimes we fear the threats and consequences that might come against us more than we trust that God will be able to deliver us. From cover to cover, Scripture points us toward individuals who stood, trusted God, walked by faith and found God faithful. We serve a God who raised Jesus from the dead. We have nothing to fear!
In what ways do we need to stand today? First, we need to stand in our walk with God. This is no time to be unprepared for the spiritual battle. When Nehemiah rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem he led the workers to take up a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other as they worked. Satan is a relentless enemy. I don’t think we realize how continually and constantly he works to deceive and discourage us. Second, we need to stand firm for our families. The generations to come need to know that we stood in our place on the wall. They need to see us stand for them and with them. Satan wants to destroy families. He will do that through divorce, through bitterness and unforgiveness, through pornography and sexual perversion of our culture or through any other idol we create. We need to be proactive in how we lead our families and make sure we are grounding ourselves and our loved ones in Scripture. We need to stand for our churches. This is not the time to be passive in the work of God and let someone else do the work. Pick up a trowel. Get on the wall. Finally, we need to stand for our nation. America continues to decay morally and spiritually. The cultural and political acrimony around us is just a symptom of the greater problem. No, one person or one family can’t change the nation but we can stand and make a difference in our sphere of influence.
Now is the time to stand!