“Then I said to them, ‘You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire.  Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.'”  Nehemiah 2:17

Walls are interesting things.  Though we have them and experience them in all sorts of places, we give relatively little thought to their existence in our lives.  As I write, I sit in a room surrounded by walls: four of them.  Those very walls serve a multitude of purposes; they protect, shelter, repel and give strength and stability to my existence.

Walls keep out the wind and elements such as ice, snow, rain and fog.  They trap heat so that we can be warm; they can create shade away from the bright and powerful sun.  They keep out wild animals and insects (though those pesky little creatures often find their way in).  They provide structure for a roof to go over our heads and anchors for a floor beneath our feet.  They allow us to enhance the quality of our lives when we paint them and display artwork on them.

As soon as humans could figure it out, they began building walls to protect themselves.  For some, that meant creating blankets or fabric sheets that were easily transportable and hung up by the use of poles or trees.  For others, clay was formed into bricks that stacked one upon another to form more permanent walls.  Still others learned how to log, which eventually gave rise to the homes we now have.  Those living in areas with stones and large rocks were inspired to gather them together and plaster them into structures.  And sometimes, simple earthen mounds were created to provide defensive man-made walls.  Mankind has been building walls for a long, long time.

In fact, as cities were built–and people began to congregate together in more confined spaces–walls were essential to the safety and well-being of those gathering places.  If you visit most historical areas throughout the world, you will usually find evidence of walls around or near those sites.  Walls were an absolute necessity for not only defining the borders of the city but also providing entry points, security, and protection.  More so, those walls and their good state of repair symbolized the strength of the people who resided within them.  Strong walls meant strong people.

Today, we have less visible walls.  You will still occasionally find them in older cities and towns, but we now rely on technology and more specialized jobs to provide a sense of security in our communities.  Police departments, security cameras, large fences and surveillance companies often do the trick in making us feel secure.  In the digital world, we even have “firewalls” and multiple-tiered levels of entry to keep secure what we want walled off from internet marauders.  At this very moment in history, we are using “walls” to protect ourselves.

Why do we need to think about walls in the context of trusting God?  One simple word, in.  As I unfolded its definition, I came across the word, immure. Before that, the other definitions of in seem to point to the concept of being “shut in”.  In immure, how something becomes shut in became a bit clearer: walls.  In fact, immure is literally a derivative of the word, wall, and its first definition is “to enclose within walls.”  Its obsolete definition (the definition that is not used so much anymore) is “to surround with walls; fortify.”  And that left me pondering…

When we decide to trust, to be effective in doing so, we have to put our trust in something.  In Psalm 56:3, we are instructed to turn to trust rather than the feelings of being afraid and then place that trust in God rather than in fear.  When we contemplate the definition of immure, we begin to see how better to do that.  Feelings are usually fleeting.  Emotions such as happiness, fear, surprise, anger and so on come into our hearts and minds rather quickly, and then, just as quick, they dissipate.  This is also true of trust.  You can have it one moment and be back to fearing in the next.

To transfer a more lasting mental state from fear to trust, we need to learn how to build walls around our trust.  We need to become adept at shutting in Trust and secluding it from the whispering of Fear and its friends.  Once we recognize and admit that we are feeling afraid, we need to immediately enclose trust into our hearts and minds.  The obsolete definition of immure calls on us to consider surrounding ourselves with godly walls that specifically fortify our faith in Him.

Interestingly enough, fortifying something involves strengthening it from attack.  That could include providing it with defensive works, surrounding it or protecting it.  Make no mistake, our ability to trust needs fortification.  We must furnish it with what is needed to help it resist Fear’s attacks.  That is how our trust and faith will become stronger in God and more effective when employed.  We can become more resilient in exposure to what frightens us when we surround ourselves with supportive walls. By doing so, we will be strengthened both mentally and morally.

The walls that we build will become like the walls of a city in the days of old.  At the threat of an advancing horde, the residents would take refuge behind those walls and close up the gates shutting themselves in for protection.  In that refuge and shelter, they could move from running from fear to what they actually needed to do to overcome the threat.  They could move from feeling afraid to trusting in the fortifications God had had them build.

It is such fortifications–the walls of Jerusalem–that brought Nehemiah to tears and great sadness.  The news, that its mighty walls had fallen and the city had been burned, broke his heart.  Those walls had marked not only its strength, but also how far Jerusalem had fallen from God in not maintaining its reliance on Him.  The armies that destroyed the city weren’t random invaders.  They were God’s tool of punishment in response to how wayward His people had gone.  Those walls of disrepair were evidence of much more than just prior strength.  They had literally come to represent just how little His people had trusted in Him and His way.  When our walls begin to crumble or crack, you can bet that our faith and trust may be headed the same way.  That is why it is incredibly important to surround our trust in God with the appropriate walls of support and then keep them well maintained.

“They said to me, ‘Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace.  The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.’  When I heard these things, I sat down and wept.  For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”  Nehemiah 1:3-4