“Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down that wall.” President Ronald Reagan said words similar to these as he stood near the Berlin Wall.  A few years later the wall that separated East Germany from West Germany came down. That wall divided a country and city in two. That is what walls do, they divide.

President Elect Donald Trump promises to build a wall to keep illegal border crossings between Mexico and the United States. I am all for tightening security at our borders and doing what we can to encourage people to enter our country in legal ways. However, I am not sure a physical wall is the best way. But I digress.

Walls do three things.

1. They establish a boundary or a boarder, setting the limits of property or a zone.
2. They keep other out.
3. They keep us in.  Walls can be both security and a prison.

Walls can be figurative.

You and I put up figurative walls around our lives.

• We are hurt by a friend  – we put up a wall to defend our emotions.
• Our spouse disappoints us – we erect a wall around our heart.
• Our parent(s) seem overbearing – we construct another wall.
• Folks at church hurt us – another wall.

These walls that we build to protect our emotions soon become our prison. We think we are free from that person or those people, but that freedom is not freedom it is our prison as we walk alone (for some reason I now have the Eagles’ song Desperado playing in my head). In our isolation, we begin to blame God for not caring for us and providing companions for us and you guessed it – we put up a wall between us and God.

Tear down that wall!

Which one? Start with the wall between you and God. God did not build the wall.  He longs to have fellowship with you. He desires for all to be with Him and enjoy eternal blessings. Christ is standing and knocking for you to open back up to Him and let Him in. Tear down that wall!

Once you and God are back on speaking terms (that is you are reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer), then work your way through the other walls you built. “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” (Rom 12:18). Do your part to tear down the wall that you built.

-Scott

Disclaimer: Walls that protect you from sin, those walls that keep sin out and keep you from engaging in sin need to remain standing. God even wants us to fill the gaps (breach) in those walls (Exe 22:30). This may include people who will hurt your walk with God.  Continue to love them and reach out to them, but do so with discernment.