If you’ve been following my blog since I restarted writing on November 15th, you’ll have noticed that we’ve been going through Nehemiah.  When I started in chapter 6, I had no idea I’d keep writing in Nehemiah, restarting in the first chapter, so it made complete sense for me to start in chapter 6.

Now, it has become confusing haha.  Since we had chapter 5 yesterday and would skip to Chapter 7 today, I thought instead I’d just have a recap of the posts from Chapter 6.  Without repeating these, you’d think I hated chapter 6, or would just be missing context… and everyone knows context is king. Below you’ll find a link and a summary of each post.

A man such as I – Nehemiah 6:10-13

Sometimes we have our own Shemaiah, our own false prophets who say, “You cannot do this, let us come together and hide.”  or “You should just quit, its not working.” or “Are you kidding?  You can’t do that, you’re just ____.” And we listen… Let go of those comments, let go of those criticisms and remember WHOSE you are.  Remember WHO has called you.

Isaiah-sized Dreams – Nehemiah 6:15-16

Are my dreams so small that they can appear to have been finished by people? or Are my dreams so big that it becomes obvious to everyone who sees it, that God must have been with the project?

Be on the lookout for a new Tech Support Thursdays tomorrow.

Thanks,

Isaiah

Nehemiah 4:14

[14] And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”

Israel’s enemies have begun to rally, crying out that they are going to attack and stop them from building.  They start spreading more rumors of attacking, that they won’t see or even know they are coming upon them until they are killed!  Jerusalem is becoming frightened, but the work must continue on.

The people say there is too much rubble, and now they’re working with the fear that someone will come, that they’ll have to fight.  Nehemiah knows he has to say something, he knows that his people are discouraged, despite having finished half of the wall already.

So he says in verse 14, “Do not be afraid of them.  Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your home.”

He is telling them to keep their eyes on the work, to stop being afraid that you’re going to be attacked.  Put your eyes on the Lord, who is GREAT and AWESOME!

We have the same problem, we let our eyes drift from having God as the focus.  We begin to look around, and see walls not fully built, work not finished, and there’s so much left to do!  We panic.

Nehemiah knew the truth.  If we take our focus off of God, we forget how great and awesome He is, and we make our problems bigger than him.

So, I challenge you with the same words that Nehemiah gave the Israelites.

Today:

Do not be afraid of the problems, the fears and struggles you have, for they are small compared to God.  Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome!

in Christ,

Isaiah

Nehemiah 2:17-18

[17] Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” [18] And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. (ESV)

Nehemiah had just finished surveying the gates and the walls of Jerusalem.  He saw the gaping holes in the wall, the gates that had been broken down, finally seeing with his own eyes the true plight of the Israelites and the city of Jerusalem.  He should have been incredibly discouraged.

Instead he encouraged his fellow Israelites, knowing that God was with him and the good work they were preparing to do.

Are you an encouragement?

Do you lift others up, or put them down?

God has a great work prepared for you, but he, most likely, doesn’t want you to do it alone.  God gave Nehemiah wisdom, when looking at the entire wall-rebuilding process, to think, “There’s no way I can do this, alone.”

Most of the time we all just stop at “There’s no way I can do this…”

We also forget that we have others around us who can help us, encourage us, and be encouraged by us.

Two questions:

Are you trying to do it all on your own?

and

Who do you need to encourage today?

in Christ,

Isaiah