In one of the opening chapel sessions at Faulkner University this year [2007] the President spoke. Among the things that he said was this statement: “The time has come for you to stand on your own.” I thought that was a very powerful and appropriate statement. It made me think about several things.
The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 6, talked about the Christian armor. In this discussion he emphasized the need to stand. The word “stand” is mentioned several times with the conclusion, “And having done all, to stand.” I believe that it is the case that the time has come for all of us to stand.
We Must Stand for What Is Right
We need to firmly and without compromise stand for the truth (Jude 3). We need to be those who can be counted as proponents of right. We need to hold forth the banner of righteousness, and never back down. We must stand for right, even if no one else around us is. As has often been said, the greatest evil may be those who believe in the right, but who do not say anything. That is how Germany could be led into the terror of Hitler’s regime, and literally millions of innocent people were annihilated because good people remained silent.
We Must Stand against What Is Wrong
Those who are proponents of evil are very often militant and noisy, actively trying to get others to become part of their evil. If we who are followers of the truth do not let our voices be heard, evil will win (Ephesians 5:11). We must stand. We must teach. We must be strong.
We Must Stand with Each Other
While we must be willing to stand alone, it is very essential that we stand together. The plan of God is that the church should stand united as a mighty army ready to go forward in battle against the enemies of God, and ready to take the great and glorious Gospel to a lost and dying world. We must be strong alone. We can be unbelievably stronger together.
The Time Has Come for Us to Stand on Our Own
The time has come for us to stand on our own. We have to make the decision that we will be strong and mighty in the Lord (Joshua 24:15). We must decide that we will overcome (Romans 12:21; 1 John 5:5). We must dress ourselves in the Christian armor (Ephesians 6:11-17). Then, we must understand that we can stand on our own, because we are never really alone (Matthew 28:19-20). We will always have God on our side, by our side and upholding our side. That makes “standing alone” not sound so daunting. “Stand then, and having done all, Stand.”
