Builders & Fighters

2025 was quite the year. It will probably go down as one of the longest, shortest years I have ever had to live through. A year where my resolve was tested, faith purified and spirit humbled. And yet, despite the testing and challenges, 2025 proved to be a year of careful refinement where I saw the Lord gently (and sometimes not so gently) pulling me apart in order to beautifully piece me back together again.

At a recent volunteer's appreciation evening, my pastor shared a message titled "builders and fighters". It was a message based off Nehemiah 4:17: 'Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon. '

For some context, Nehemiah was a Hebrew captive who became the cupbearer for a king in a foreign land. He obtained permission from that king to go back to Jerusalem to build the walls of the Jerusalem that had been destroyed. Upon arriving and starting the work of rebuilding, he and the people he came with faced great opposition from certain individuals who did not want the walls to be rebuilt. Hence, Nehemiah instructed that the people build with one hand and hold a weapon with the other.

I would suggest that for most of us, 2025 felt like a massive building and fighting project. Many of us where building or rebuilding our families, careers, self-identity, self-worth, relationship with others and God while at the same time fighting off enemy attacks against our mental health, finances, families, friendships, prayer life, etc. At times, it seemed as if the battle was lost and other times we sensed progress being made as we won various challenges. Whatever the case, it was not an easy year and for many of us, the battle(s) still wages on.

You know, challenges have a way of humbling us and making us realise that our perfect little bubbles can be so easily dismantled. And when that bubble pops, and the daily affirmations no longer work or the mental health/self-care routine no longer brings any comfort or peace; there must be Someone higher that you can turn too to ease the tumult in your soul. For me, turning to the Holy Spirit brought me great comfort and peace. The fighting and building I did last year was done not from a place of self-sufficiency but from a place of dependency on Him.

Nehemiah understood that taking a position of dependency on God as we build and fight is crucial for our success. This is what he answered those who opposed him as he sought to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem"

'So I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build...”

Nehemiah 2:20

Now, while Nehemiah gave the response above to his enemies, he gave the following encouragement to the people working with him:

'And I looked, and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”

Nehemiah 4:14

Here's thing, when we have a divine partnership with the Lord, we are able to build and fight from a place of divine strength. This divine partnership enables us to operate not from a place of fear and despondency but from a place of hope and expectation. We rise up and build knowing that our Lord backs us up and will cause us to prosper. On days when we would rather cower and hide because of the intensity of the battle, the Lord comforts us and empowers us with supernatural energy to fight back.

Last year was a humbling year and I learnt that to be a builder and a fighter requires great humility and an understanding that on our own we can only do so much. However, once we submit to the Lord, we are able to do far greater things then we could have ever imagined.

FN

"In Him we live & breathe & have our being"