Angels on the Walls

Welcome to Our Daily Bread.

I'm Sheridan Voisey and I've called our reading today Angels on the Walls. When Wallace and Mary Brown moved to an impoverished part of Birmingham, England to pastor a dying church, they didn't know that a gang had made the grounds of their church and home its headquarters. The Browns had bricks thrown through their windows, their fences set on fire and their children threatened. The abuse continued for months.

The police were unable to stop it. The Book of Nehemiah recounts how the Israelites rebuilt Jerusalem's broken walls. When locals set out to stir up trouble, threatening them with violence, the Israelites prayed to God and posted a guard. Feeling God used this passage to direct them, the Browns, their children and a few others walked round their church's walls, praying that he would install angels as guards to protect them. The gang jeered, but the next day, only half of them showed up. The day after that, only five were there. And the day after, no one came.

The Browns later heard the gang had given up terrorising people. This miraculous answer to prayer isn't a formula for our own protection, but it's a reminder that opposition to God's work will come and must be fought with the weapon of prayer. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, Nehemiah told the Israelites.

He can even set violent hearts free. Today's scripture reading is from Nehemiah chapter 4 verses 6 to 9. So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.

They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted to God day and night to meet this threat. Let's pray together.

Lord, we love hearing stories of your miraculous protection like Wallace and Mary Browns. Such a wonderful story, they give us faith for the problems that we face or those that we know and love face. Awesome God, we bring those adversities to you now. Would you protect your people by your powerful angels and set the hearts of your enemies free. We pray this in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Sheridan Voisey and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.