United We Stand

The base throbbed, synchronizing my heartbeat to its tempo. We had great seats with a perfect view. I stood shoulder to shoulder in the crowded auditorium alongside other concert-goers who held their phone’s high. Their flashing camera’s rivaled the onstage light show. The singers belted out a wide scale of notes to catchy choruses, with skills I could only imagine having. However, it wasn’t the singing or lyrics that impacted me the most at the Hillsong concert (even though both were amazingly good). For me seeing a room full of Christians united in worship rose the fine hairs on my arms and made my heart swell with a joy that was pressed down, shaken together and running over.“United we stand, divided we fall,” Patrick Henry’s words roused early Americans to unite against the British and their allies.“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” Abraham Lincoln said these famous words at the Republican conference and demonstrated his priority for preserving the union.What most people don’t realize is that Abraham was paraphrasing the words of Jesus when Jesus stood before the Sadducees. “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.”Why does this ancient wisdom need to be reiterated over many generations? Because, we fall for the same trick year after year, century after century. The devil knows how best to weaken us: divide and conquer, cultivate disharmony, turn brother against brother.Years ago at a marriage retreat, the speaker emphasized expressing your feelings, and that it’s healthy to argue. He did so to the point I grew worried that my husband and I didn’t argue enough. At the time, we had three kids all under the age of four, who didn’t sleep through the night, were a perpetual danger to themselves, and needed constant attention. When I told my husband of my concern, he said, “When you’re in the trenches (trying to raise 3 small boys), you don’t have time to pick the lint off each other.”  But that’s exactly what the devil tries to get us to do. He wants us to knit pick each other. He wraps us up in minor skirmishes. He disillusions us to think our loved ones are the problem so that we take our focus off the real opponent. He tricks us into elevating trivial matters to distract us from the major battle against an evil foe.I pray today that God lead us back to the proper perspective. That we will stop attacking each other and stand united as God’s army. For as the apostle Paul stated, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”