“And you, son of man, on the day I take away their stronghold, their joy and glory, the delight of their eyes, their heart’s desire, and their sons and daughters as well— on that day a fugitive will come to tell you the news. At that time your mouth will be opened; you will speak with him and will no longer be silent. So you will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the Lord.” – Ezekiel 24:25-27 NIV
STRONGHOLD (def.) — A place that has been fortified so as to protect it from attack.
God, our Father, created us in his own image, and he holds a special place for us in his heart. He desires nothing more than to be treated the same by us. He looks at us as if we are the “apple of his eye” and he wants us to look at him with the same admiration. He wants us to yoke ourselves to him and have no other idols before him, he wants to be our stronghold as we seek refuge in him, and yet… we choose temporary earthly treasures and try to keep them safe in a paper bag stronghold, thinking that we are protecting them from attack.
We’re like a toddler who puts all of their favorite things into a paper bag, just to drag it around, sleep with it, greedily squeeze it tight, and refuse to share it with others. We think that the paper bag is a stronghold that will keep our treasures safe, but it is actually a weak gathering point for “treasures” that have no value at all.
God has the power to breakdown any of our strongholds that we think are unbreakable and will protect us, and since he wants to be our only stronghold, he does this for our benefit and growth. Sometimes we choose as our strongholds people, such as a spouse or our children, sometimes we make our careers our stronghold, or money, our home, our image, or our reputation. Just as God showed Ezekiel as he took his wife from him, those things are temporary and can be removed from us at any time.
Sometimes our strongholds are our emotions, such as fear, panic, anxiety, anger, doubt, shame, bitterness, addictive tendencies, etc. God can break those down too, when we choose to let him be our only stronghold. Emotional strongholds develop when we have a thought come into our mind, and rather than telling it to leave, we adopt it, feed it, and let it take up residence in our mind. We think that these emotions offer us protection from being hurt by others, but they only keep us isolated, stuck, and clinging to the paper bag as we refuse to exchange it for a far better stronghold.
The Lord is offering us the only stronghold that will truly offer protection and safety in a world where everything else is temporary and fleeting. But we have to be willing to empty the paper bag of all the things that we’re calling our treasures, and hand them over to Jesus for safekeeping. The paper bag will NOT hold, and no matter how many times we repair it, it will still be a paper bag… a very inadequate stronghold.
We each get to make the choice… to select the stronghold that will help us through the struggles and challenges of this life. We can choose the stronghold that will endure through all of eternity and protect in every battle, or we can hang onto the paper bag until death.