Key to Staying Together

Ezra 3:11

And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

Whenever there is a great work for God happening, Satan will always try to use God's people to cause division or contention in that work. Satan understands that no work can stand when it is divided. He also understands that no work can go forward and accomplish what it is doing as long as there is division among the people of that work.

In the very early stages of Ezra rebuilding the temple, the people sang together by course. The excitement of this work was tremendous, which resulted in the people singing together. However, in the very next verse, we see that there was a division that happened. Verse 12 says, But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy: As they had laid the foundation for the temple, there were some people who had seen the original temple, and their comparisons of the foundation caused them to weep with a loud voice. Certainly, we can understand what this older generation had seen in the original temple, but to weep when God was doing a work only caused division amongst the workers and hurt the cause of its rebuilding. These people who were weeping became focused on comparison rather than focusing on what God was doing in their midst.

You can be guaranteed that Satan will not sit idly by when God is doing a work in a life or any church. He will do everything in his power to cause that work to cease. We must be careful not to allow his contentious and divisive plans to infiltrate our spirit and the work that God is doing. The work that we are doing is much greater than we can understand. Let me share a couple of thoughts about the importance of staying together and how to do it.

First, stay focused on what God is doing and enjoy it. If you are not careful, you will easily get off focus and compare, which always results in contention and division. It is unfair to compare one work to another or one person's life to another. Every work and every person is different, and the fact that God is working in each person or in each work ought to be our focus and not on the differences between them.

Second, staying busy in the work will keep you too busy to focus on a source that could cause contention. I have learned in my life that if I just stay busy doing what I'm supposed to be doing, I will not have time to look around to find problems with somebody or with the work. I've always learned that those who stay the busiest are those who don't cause problems in the church. It is those who sit and compare who are the ones who cause the divisions and the strife in a church.

My friend, there is nothing like a church that is together. When they sing and work together, great things can be done in that church. Be careful that you don't become the source of division or contention in your church because you got off-focused. Keep your focus on God and what He is doing in the work, and you will find that you can enjoy the work that God is doing in your midst.