Walls are meant to protect. Ancient cities castles were fortified by protective walls. Inside the wall was safety; outside was risk. Walls establish boundaries and they separate us from unwelcome intruders. Sometimes we also set up “walls” to keep people from knowing too much about us. From privacy walls on our computers to emotional walls that keep people at a distance, walls protect us. And at the same time they also isolate us from others.
Maybe you’ve built up a wall of mistrust with someone who once offended you or took advantage of you. Or maybe they built the wall so high you can’t peer over it or get close enough to attempt a reconciliation.
Walls, once built, are difficult to take down. They’re built easily with pride but require humility and effort to tear them down. A prideful heart says, “I’m right. I don’t need him/her.” A humble heart says, “We need each other. We’re part of the same community. We each have pieces of the other’s puzzle. We each have value.”
Just as there are physical walls and relationship walls that separate us from others, there are walls of worry, anxiety, fear, and pride that separate us from God, from his hope, trust, and assurance, and from peace and satisfaction we long to experience. Can I worry and pray confidently at the same time? Can I experience real peace while clinging to anxious thoughts? Can I truly trust God’s will as best if I insist on having my own way?
No, it would be like thinking only of the color black and the color white at the same time. It would be like trying to go east while traveling west. When we insist on dwelling on fear, worry, anxiety, and prideful ways, it builds walls that tower up between us and God’s good promises for us. They can grow to such height that we lose sight of God entirely and see only the darkness of our problems and our self-centered goals without the benefit of God’s light of truth and grace.
I’ve built up walls of worry and walls of fear, walls of doubt and walls of prideful ambitions. Haven’t you? There’s a time for building up walls of protection, boundaries that keep us safe within God’s will (Micah 7:11). And there’s a time for tearing down (Ecclesiastes 3:3) walls that separate us from others, walls of worry and anxiety and prideful needs that separate us from God himself.
If you search your heart and find you’ve been building walls of worry that separate you from God’s peace or walls of doubt that separate you from his faithful promises, it’s never too late to start tearing them down.
“But how?” you ask. “I’ve tried before to surrender worry and doubt and fear and pride. I give them up to the Lord only to take them back on my shoulders again. How can I possibly tear down these walls of worry and fear?” May I suggest that the Word of God is living and true and effective for all aspects of your daily life and mine. Jesus used only the Word of God to refute the devil’s temptations. It is good enough for us too. Reading, repeating, and memorizing scripture puts it right in front of you. Put it on a sticky note before you, and when a wall of worry starts to build up, the Word of God tears it down. The same is true for the counsel of mature (not perfect) believers. Transparent and accountable fellowship with other believers sheds light on walls that are built in the darkness of private thoughts. Two or three workers, working together, can more easily tear down a wall of fear, of doubt, or anxiety. Just as walls are built by the outer strength of prideful self, they are torn down by the inner strength of a humble heart.
As President Reagan challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down that (political) wall,” so it is time for each of us to ask God for wisdom, strength, and courage to search our hearts and tear down the walls of prejudice, judgmentalism, worry, anxiety, and fear in our own lives.
Go ahead, “Tear down that wall!” Repeat daily as necessary.